Best knock is of little value
Fabian Cowdrey claims his careerbest T20 knock means little after seeing Kent blown-away by Middlesex for a fifth NatWest T20 Blast defeat in seven games. Kent suffered a 40-run humbling in South Group on Friday night. Some superb fielding from James Tredwell and 4-31 for Darren Stevens restricted the visitors to a total of 210-6, which might have been far worse, despite Brendan McCullum carrying his bat for a superb 87 not out from just 57 balls. McCullum hit four fours and five sixes as the visitors total was boosted by a six-run penalty for slow play for the Spitfires. However, despite an eye-catching career-best 71 from Cowdrey, only Sam Northeast’s 41 gave him any support as Kent fell well short in front of a bumper crowd of more than 5,000 on a glorious evening at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence. Cowdrey admitted: “It was 29 short (of a century) but that’s one of those things. “It’s difficult to commemorate a career-best innings when you’ve gone down in flames, sadly. “It’s one of those things, we’ll continue to be positive and hopefully we can do something special. We’re perfectly capable of that. Fingers crossed. We’re onto the next one.” Kent were due to face Sussex in a televised T20 at Canterbury last night (Thursday) with a trip to Chelmsford to face Essex tonight (Friday, 7pm). Cowdrey has endured a stop-start campaign but said it was satisfying to showcase his talent. He said: “It’s been a difficult one for me to get going. I’ve come in either at the end or been coming in to stem the flow of wickets, so playing with freedom can be a little bit tough when you’re thinking about setting it up for the likes of our three strikers in our middle order. “It’s nice to get going and show I can hit a few boundaries when I’m in a bit of nick.”