11:24 PM IST, 6:54 PM local time: Star-studded Surrey have been steamrolled in their own backyard by Sam Billings' Kent. The visitors win by 8 wickets with complete 6 overs to spare.
The bowlers set the tone. Debutant Keith Dudgeon, who announced himself by delivering fast and furious first over up front, started the damage. He extracted extra bounce as well as some movement in the air with the new ball. He routed out Will Jacks in the first over itself and then went on to bowl an impressive 3-over spell within the powerplay.
While the start was iffy, a lot of us expected Surrey to fight back in the middle overs. However, those plans were thwarted by the duo of leg-spinners. In the 8 overs they bowled in tandem, Jacob Lintott and Joe Denly only conceded three boundaries. This period saw the fall of the wickets of Sam Curran, Jason Roy and Laurie Evans. But even after the two spinners were done, Kent did not let it loose. Fred Klaassen and Matt Milnes came back to close it out at the death. The field placements were spot-on. The catching was good. The only batter who showed a semblance of fight was Tom Curran. Surrey were bundled out for a mere 116.
The chase was a pretty straightforward one. Reece Topley did ignite the flames of hope by matching Keith Dudgeon's powerplay spell. In fact, Kent had an inferior return off the first overs of the run chase. However, the difference was that they knew what they were chasing and could hence take their time. They lost two wickets early, but then, Harry Finch and Sam Billings stitched an unbeaten 89-run partnership which eventually took the team hom. Finch was particularly impressive. Playing his first game of the tournament, he radiated nothing but confidence and hardly put a foot wrong during his sparkling knock of 64* (42).