Kentish Express Ashford & District
Adams confident of Kent success
Jimmy Adams is bullish about Kent’s chances of reaching just their second Lord’s final in 17 years when they visit Warwickshire in the Royal London One-Day Cup semi-final this afternoon (Thursday). It has been 36 years since Kent won a trophy in the longer forms of limited overs cricket and seven since their T20 glory at Edgbaston, however Adams revealed the club is riding a wave of positivity which he hopes will lead them to glory. He said: “People are certainly looking forward to this game and there’s a lot of positive energy at the club leading up to a huge occasion for all of us. “It’s been a wonderful journey up to this point and the lads have played some good cricket. They deserve to be there and we’re hoping they can go a step further. “We don’t want the journey to end now we want to take it two steps beyond Thursday – get to the final and win it – but let’s take it one step at a time.” Kent have had the distraction of a clash with Glamorgan this week, which was heading towards a draw yesterday (Wednesday) to all-but end any hopes of Championship promotion. Adams said: “We’ve been busy with the Glamorgan game but come Wednesday evening, we’ll start focusing on the job in hand. “Everyone will want to play but we pretty much know the players we are using. “We have shown we have matchwinners and we lack fear. There’s more than enough self-belief and confidence going into a fixture like this. “We just hope we see the best that Kent can do and if we do that on the day, then I’m sure that will be good enough to win.” One player who won’t feature is spinner James Tredwell, despite being dropped by England for the fourth of five ODIs with India on Tuesday, with Adams revealing: “We have been on to the ECB but he will not be released.”