Claydon’s strong finish

Mitch Claydon says the Spitfires can take huge belief from their superb win at Hampshire Royals to help them finish the season strongly in all forms of the game. The 30-year-old has quietly established himself as Kent’s ‘death’ bowler in the shortest format this season after joining on-loan from Durham where he is out of favour. The Australian-born paceman collected five wickets in the t20 warm-up game with New Zealand and in the six games since the start of the friends Life t20 South Division campaign, has collected an impressive 7-158. He was handed the ball for two of the final three overs as Kent recorded their first win against defending champions Hampshire on Sunday to end the Royals’ 17-game unbeaten streak. Claydon claimed 2-24 – taking the crucial scalps of Sean Ervine and Neil McKenzie and produced two tight overs to keep Hampshire eight runs short, with the hosts having needed 20 runs from the final 18 balls. Claydon said: “It was a good win and we enjoyed it. We can take a lot of belief from that game, to go in against a side that’s been beating every side they come up against for the last year.” He added: “They needed 55 off five overs but they had a couple of big overs and needed 20 off three and still had Neil McKenzie there, one of the best finishers in England. “I managed to bowl a good over and get a wicket and then Vernon Philander bowled a good one, meaning with the last they needed 13 and I’d have had to mess it up pretty badly from there.” Having lost their first five games in the competition, Claydon claimed: “The last four games are important. The difference between 1-9 and 5-5 is huge, not just for this season’s competition but for the future of the team, too. We’ve got a lot of young players and they will all be better players for these experiences. “The biggest problem is that we’ve not scored as many runs as we’d have liked, we’ve dropped a few catches along the way and the bowling hasn’t always been on it but we showed great character and fight to get the win on Sunday.” Claydon’s deal is due to run-out after the t20 game against Sussex at Hove on Wednesday but he said: “I’m not going to get the opportunity to play if I go back to Durham and I would like to stay on. I’m enjoying it at Kent and hopefully something can be sorted.”