Spitfires edged out by Vikings

Darren Stevens reflected on another so near yet so far moment for Kent Spitfires after the 11-run defeat against Yorkshire at Canterbury. Kent lost their Royal London One-day quarter-final by 11 runs against the Vikings in front of a full house at Canterbury last Thursday. The tie went down to the wire with few people in the near 6,000 crowd leaving as the tension built at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, as Kent set 257 to win, were dismissed for 245 with 2.1 overs remaining. Stevens hit 54, his 45th list A half-century – in his 500th appearance for the county – before falling to a superb one-handed catch by man-ofthe-match Liam Plunkett. The Kent all-rounder said: “I still don’t know how he (Plunkett) has caught that. It was behind him, it was over his head and he got it in two fingers, so it was frustrating. “I kept saying let’s get through him and we’ll win the game, because he was the hardest to face, bowling a lot of crossseamers, two paced, and you couldn’t line him up like the others “If we had got past him unscathed, we would have won.” Kent’s fate was sealed when James Tredwell (17) was dismissed by David Willey, adjudged leg before wicket off the fifth ball of the 48th over with just 12 runs needed for victory. Tredwell had shared a ninth-wicket stand of 30 with Charlie Hartley to put Kent within sight of victory. This was after Stevens and Alex Blake (50) had put on 86 in 14 overs for the fifth wicket. Earlier, after winning the toss and putting Yorkshire in, Kent had restricted the Vikings to 256-9, with Adam Lyth (88) top scoring. Matt Coles returned figures of 3-39 from his 10 overs, while Hartley took 2-42. Yorkshire’s reward is a home tie against Surrey at Headingley in the last four, while Warwickshire face Somerset at Edgbaston in the other semi-final.