Stirling at all time low while Middlesex cause Kent EXIT

Rogers and Out describes in detail on match that allows Middlesex Remain hopeful in 20/20 as Kent Exit.

Middlesex moved into second place in the T20 Blast South group table after a comprehensive 40 run victory over Kent at the Spitfire ground in Canterbury.

Following on from the close fought win over Somerset at Lord's the previous night, Dawid Malan made an excellent knock of 60 and Brendon McCullum carried his bat for 87, which earned him the Man of the Match award in his last game for us this season.

Three wickets for Toby Roland-Jones kept our hosts at bay in their reply, and some fine, economical bowling by Nathan Sowter, who returned very good figures of 1/16 from his four overs, meant we were always in control of the game.

For once on a T20 night, the weather was reasonably clement. We won the toss and elected to bat. Harry Podmore came into the side, replacing Steven Finn from the team that edged out Somerset.

We took ten runs from the first over, with the captain driving Griffiths through the covers to the boundary then cutting him behind square for another four.

Big Mac square cut the burly Claydon to the boundary in the next over, then Mala smashed Hunn straight down the ground into the Frank Woolley stand for six. We were rattling along nicely at around 9-10 runs per over and the unfortunate Hunn was pulled by Brendon behind square for a maximum, then AC compounded his misery by dispatching consecutive deliveries for four.

Kent brought on their slow bowlers to try to stem the tide of runs, but McCullum lofted Tredwell for another six and Fabian Cowdrey's only over was hammered for nineteen runs.

Mala brought up his fifty in the eighth over and dished out more treatment to Darren Stevens, hitting him for four then six to bring up the one hundred partnership. However, the very next ball, Tredwell took a superb, one handed catch at point to dismiss Malan off the bowling of Stevens.

Hunn's evening got even worse as a dire piece of fielding gifted Stirlo a boundary, but the combination of Tredwell catching and Stevens bowling dismissed the man from Ulster, leaving us on 119/2. We were now faltering a little and Franklin was run out by Cowdrey whilst attempting a risky second run and Fuller was bowled by Stevens for just one.

McCullum, however, was batting with a little more circumspection than usual and was anchoring us to a decent total. Although the wily Stevens returned good figures of 4/31 from his allocation, we kept scoring at around ten runs per over. A good partnership of 55 runs at the end between Big Mac and Ryan Higgins saw us close on 210/6, assisted by six penalty runs due to Kent's slow over rate.

We got off to the perfect start when TR-J induced Latham to chop the ball on to his stumps from the very first delivery and it was not long when his slower ball deceived Joe Denly, who looped a simple catch to Franco at mid on leaving Kent on 19/2.

Kent captain Sam Northeast and Cowdrey attempted to redress the balance with both players hitting some fine shots. The pair put on 57 before Northeast guided Franco into Harry Podmore's hands at a short third man.

Much to the disappointment of Kev, Alex Blake made just three rather than seven, lofting the excellent Nathan Sowter to Fuller at long on. Sowter bowled beautifully, with nice variation of flight and pace, and his economy kept Kent well behind the ever increasing asking rate.

The announcer at the Spitfire ground was giving Mr Perambulator a run for his money, persistently announcing bowling changes halfway through the bowler's run up. This usually occurred during the second ball of the over, causing the batsmen to have to walk away having been put off.

The out-of-sorts Sam Billings could not really use this as an excuse. He kept trying and failing to reverse sweep Sowter, and tamely gave his wicket away, glancing Fuller to Poddy at fine leg for just seven runs. Kent now had it all to do on 131/5, needing eighty runs from thirty three balls.

Fabian Cowdrey had not given up and a couple of poor overs by first Stirlo then Harry gave Kent a glimmer of hope. It was left to our talisman Toby to end his fine innings on 71, with James Fuller taking a good catch on the run at mid off.

That was really the end of Kent's hopes. Stevens was caught on the boundary by young Nathan off Fuller, and Kent closed on 170/7 leaving us with a very good win indeed.

I should also commend our fielding in this match. It was terrific and captain Dawid Malan led by example with some excellent stops. Next stop on the T20 tour is at Hove next Friday. It is very close at the top of the group and another win would give us a real chance of progressing in this tournament for the first time in eight years.