Nottinghamshire 263 for 9 (Montgomery 92*, Qadri 4-47) beat Kent 259 for 9 (Bell-Drummond 79, Compton 59, James 4-45) by one wicket
Montgomery, fittingly, scored the winning runs when he reverse-swept Grant Stewart for four to conclude a stomach-clenchingly tense run chase.
It was a “four-pointer” at the Spitfire Ground, with Kent third in Group A and Notts needing to win both their remaining fixtures to stand any chance of qualifying, having lost their previous three.
The Spitfires chose to bat in front of a crowd of over 3000 on the club’s Community Day and their openers were untroubled during a stand of 138, but for a second consecutive game they failed to really push on once that partnership was broken.
Compton was the first man to go, victim of a sharp caught-and-bowled by Liam Patterson-White in the 27th over. Bell-Drummond soon followed, caught behind off Tom Loten.
It wasn’t technically a collapse as the next pair of Jack Leaning and Alex Blake put on 33, but the flow of boundaries dried up and the latter was out for 11 when he cut James to Ben Martindale.
James then bowled Leaning for 24 and Harry Finch was run out for nine by Haseeb Hameed chasing a non-existent single after being sent back by his partner Jaydn Denly. Denly at least broke a spell of exactly ten overs without a boundary, but he in turn was stumped for 11 after he came down the wicket to Calvin Harrison.
The first six of the match didn’t arrive till the 46th over, when Grant Stewart creamed Loten over cow corner and as Kent tried a late charge James Bazley was caught and bowled by James for 15.
By the time Stewart was lbw for 25 to Paterson any hopes of a 300 plus score had long since been abandoned. Qadri was caught by King for three after skying James and it was left to the last wicket pair to milk what they could off the last two overs.
Scoring didn’t seem any easier when Notts were chasing. They were 66 without loss in the 16th when Ben Slater was bowled by Qadri, during a spell when they went 11.5 overs without finding the rope.
In Qadri’s next over he bowled James for eight and Martindale was then run out for 38. He seemed to flinch while anticipating Compton’s throw and couldn’t ground his bat before Nathan Gilchrist broke his wicket.
After a campaign dogged by injury, Gilchrist roared with joy when he bowled Hameed’s middle stump for 27 for only his second wicket of the season, in any format, and his first at Canterbury.
Patterson-White was out for six after he thick-edged Qadri to Blake for six and Sam King was stumped off Parkinson for 12.
When Denly bowled Dane Schadendorf for nine Notts were seven down with 79 needed but
Harrison and Montgomery eroded the target with some clever running, only for the former to cut Qadri straight to Compton at backward point.
Loten was then caught behind off Parkinson but Paterson played sensibly and with an over to go the target was down to seven off Stewart’s 50th over.
Montgomery just blocked the first for a single and Paterson drove the second for four. A single off the third tied the scores. The fourth was a dot and Montgomery then executed a classy reverse-swept four to clinch the win.
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