T20 Blast 2018, Day 5: Round-up

The Vitality T20 Blast was back with action after a gap of two days. On the fifth day of the tournament, there was only one game that was played. It was a South Group encounter between Gloucestershire and Kent. The game was a high-scoring and a nail-biting one as it was Gloucestershire who held their nerve at the end to get a win under their belt.

Also, this is the first game of the tournament that Kent has lost. Batting first, Gloucestershire put up 184 runs on the board. However, Kent fell short of the required total by just 5 runs. Jack Taylor, who scored 42 off 23 was awarded the ‘Man of the Match’.

Gloucestershire vs Kent – South Group

Kent’s skipper Sam Billings won the toss and elected to field first. Although Gloucestershire managed to put a big total on the board, they haven’t got to an ideal start. They lost their skipper Michael Klinger for just 10 runs while the other opener, Hammond was out for 10 runs. Furthermore, Ian Cockbain and G Roderick were dismissed for 29 and 13 runs respectively. They were down to 82/4 in 10 overs. However, some cameos from Noema-Barnett, Ryan Higgins, and Jack Taylor took them to 184 runs for the loss of 7 wickets in their quota of 20 overs.

Kent got off to a good start and were 87/3 at the end of 10 overs. Skipper Sam Billings scored 24 off 11 balls while Heino Kuhn scored 44 of 34. However, Gloucestershire came back hard and brought Kent down to 106/6 in the 14 over. It seemed as if it could be a one-sided game from there on. But, the lower order batsmen put some tough fight. The team required 18 runs in the last over. But, they only could manage to get 13 runs as they fell short by 5 runs. Ryan Higgins picked 2 wickets while all others who bowled in the game except for David Payne picked one wicket each.

Brief Scores:

GLOUCS: 184/7 in 20 overs (J Taylor 42*, Noema-Barnett 31, Carlos Brathwaite 2/30)

KENT: 179/8 in 20 overs (H Kuhn 44, Sean Dickson 32, R Higgins 2/34)