Spitfires Beat Glamorgan Dragons in Last Over Thriller

Kent Spitfires secured the first win of their twenty20 campaign against Glamorgan Dragons on Saturday evening. The Spitfires won by 6 wickets with just 2 balls to spare. Man of the match was new overseas signing Wahab Riaz.

Kent won the toss and elected to field. Glamorgan's overseas opening pair Mark Cosgrove and Alviro Petersen got the Dragons off to a solid start putting on 69 for the first wicket. Kent stemmed the flow with good spells from the left arm seamers Riaz and Adam Ball, and James Tredwell found some turn and also bowled a good spell. Once the opening partnership was broken with the fall of Cosgrove for 47, Glamorgan lost their way, although captain Petersen held the innings together with a fluent 65.

Kent's innings got off to a steady start as the Dragons found that dropping the ball short on a slow wicket made it very difficult to get the ball away. After six overs Kent were behind the run rate and lost Rob Key for 19 as he tried to hit Robert Croft over the top. Joe Denly rode his luck before being run out at the non-strikers end, backing up, for 24. Azhar Mahmood (15) and Darren Stevens (27) then upped the run rate, but there was still much to do as Sam Northeast and Wahab Riaz came together with the score on 89 for 4, needing 66 runs off 34 balls.

The pair then blitzed the remaining overs to see the Spitfires home in style. Riaz striking 2 big sixes on his way to 32 not out from just 15 balls, while Northeast scored 33 from 20 balls at the other end. Requiring 8 to win from the final over the pair did so with 2 balls to spare.

The Spitfires next fixture is against Gloucestershire Gladiators on Wednesday at Beckenham – click here to get your ticketsand benefit from the advance purchase price.

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Photo by Sarah Ansell from SarahCanterbury.com