Nash injury takes the shine from Kent’s cup success

Twenty20 Cup, Southern Group. Canterbury.
Kent 133 for five after 17 overs (Jones 56, van Jaarsveld 39) beat Sussex 132 for seven after 20 overs (Goodwin 39, Arafat 43, Yardy 26*, Joseph 2-25, Mahmood 3-16) by five wickets.
By Mark Pennell
KENT“S third straight Twenty20 Cup win was marred by an injury to Sussex batsman Chris Nash who was ferried to hospital three-quarters of the way through Sunday“s game with a suspected broken leg.
Spitfires duly completed a comfortable five-wicket win over the Sharks with three overs still in hand courtesy of a match-winning 56 from Geraint Jones, who also won the man-of-the-match honours having taken three catches earlier in the day.
But the gloss was taken off the win by the freak fielding accident that left 26-year-old Nash nursing a badly gashedleft leg after he and team-mate Dwayne Smith had collided at long leg when attempting to catch a skier off Jones.
Smith actually caught the ball but, having seen the boundary ropes and the on-rushing Nash out the corner of his eye, tossed the ball up hoping the re-collect the catch, however, the fielders then collided allowing Jones to escape.
There was a 15-minute delay while Nash was carried into an ambulance by stretcher but Kent made light of the interruption and soon rushed to their third straight win through a 73-run fourth-wicket stand between Jones and Martin van Jaarsveld (39) inside eight overs.
Van Jaarsveld went after 32 balls when top-edging a pull then, with the scores tied, Jones went for 56 from 39 balls having hit five fours and three sixes.
It made for a sombre end to another professional display by Spitfires who maintained their unbeaten start from this their fourth game in the Southern Group.
Having decided to bat first in ideal conditions, Sussex were reduced to 55 for five and only able to muster 132 for seven thereafter.
Once more Robbie Joseph made the early inroads with 2-25, but again his figures might have been even more impressive had he had Murray Godwin caught for two at point off yet another no ball.
As they tried to increase their run-rate late in the innings Sussex lost more cheap wickets and Azhar Mahmood cashed in with three for 16 from his four tight overs.
Photograph: ARPics