Billings given T20 warning

Kent cricket

Kent captain Sam Billings has been reprimanded for showing dissent during their T20 Blast quarterfinal defeat at Surrey last Thursday.

Billings was given a Level One warning, although he has escaped picking up any penalty points as they only apply for Level Two and above offences.

He was spoken to by umpires Martin Saggers and Nick Cook after throwing the ball down in disgust when Surrey opener Jason Roy survived a run out appeal.

Ironically, Roy was caught next ball but Billings’ frustration at not getting the decision prompted the umpires to step in.

“I accept it, we are all human,” added Billings. “They had two international batsmen going at 10 runs per over, we’re in a quarter-final and it’s a decision you feel has gone the other way.” Spitfires’ T20 Blast hopes ended when they suffered a comprehensive 56-run defeat to Surrey, who ended up losing to Nottinghamshire in the final.

After Surrey made 1692, Kent’s much-heralded top four of Zak Crawley, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Joe Denly and Sam Billings all succumbed to the off-spin of Will Jacks.

The Surrey man finished with stunning career-best figures of 4-15 as the hosts strangled Kent’s reply before it had hardly got started. Jacks removed BellDrummond via an attempted sweep and Crawley when he tried to cut in his first over. Denly then picked out Jamie Overton in the deep when he tried to go big over midwicket, going for 16 to leave Kent 40-3 after 7.1 overs.

And it was game over when Billings was bowled for 18. Spitfires were 51-4 in the 10th over.

Alex Blake departed shortly after for 14 and it was Jack Leaning who ended up top scoring with a creditable 34. Billings said: “Credit to Surrey, they outplayed us and there’s not much more I can say.

“Interestingly, they said they would have bowled first if they had won the toss. We lost here in the final group match 11 days ago after batting first, so we thought we would chase this time. “Unfortunately, they got a partnership going up top and, when we batted, we lost early wickets and it was always going to be difficult after that.

“We weren’t quite at it with the ball, and overall we needed to play a lot better.”