Match Preview: Kent Spitfires v New Zealand Black Caps, t20

Kent Spitfires v New Zealand
Tour match
Saturday,22nd June – 7.00pm start
The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence

Kent Spitfires welcome theNew Zealand Black Caps to Canterbury, on the back of Wednesday night's thrilling success over Sussex in the Yorkshire Bank 40 competition.

The Squad

Kent go with a largely youthful squad for the Twenty20 fixture against the Black Caps. The Spitfires will be captained by Sam Northeast, fresh from his fantastic performance in the Yorkshire Bank 40, and the 12-man squad wlll be as follows.

Sam Northeast (C), Sam Billings (W), Daniel Bell-Drummond, Darren Stevens, Alex Blake, Ben Harmison, Fabian Cowdrey, Matt Coles, Calum Haggett, Adam Riley, Mitchell Claydon, Ben Kemp.

Players to watch:

Darren Stevens was in scintillating form on Wednesday night. He took just 44 balls, equalling an 18-year-old Kent record, to score his fifth one-daycentury.He also shared in a 159-run third-wicket partnership with Northeast to help overhaul Sussex Sharks’ massive total and help the Club to victory.

Pre-match chat:

Stand-in skipper Geraint Jones is being rested so opener Sam Northeast will lead the side and he clearly cannot wait: “I'm really looking forward to the game. Our victory against Sussex has given the boys great confidence. We weren't expecting to win like we did and to chase those runs down. As a group we put our hands up and really showed what we're capable of. New Zealand played really well against England, in the recent one-dayers, so we know that they will provide tough opposition, but we cannot wait to test ourselves out against a really strong one-day team.”

The season so far:

Kent have played some good white ball cricket so far this season and are currently second in their Yorkshire Bank 40 qualifying group, having takenten points from eight games. They are currently four points behind leaders Nottinghamshire who have won all of their games.

New Zealand will use thisfixture as ideal practice ahead of their two upcoming Twenty20 matches against England. New Zealand recently recorded a one-day series win over England so they are in good form in limited-overs cricket.

Previous meetings:

Kent have never lost against New Zealand in an official fixture, in games stretching back to 1927.There have been a total of 11matches between Kent and New Zealand with the Club achieving four wins, while seven have finished in draws. This is the first Twenty20 between the Spitfires and the Black Caps.

It's not too late to secure tickets – click here to book.

You can continue to buy online at thenormalprice until 5pm Saturday 22 June, at which time the gates open.