Kentish Express Ashford & District
Claydon left with too much to do in final over
writes Richard Harvey. That was his 54 in the second innings of the drawn LV= County Championship clash against Glamorgan at Canterbury in May. But the 22-year-old remains positive about not letting that statistic get to him. Cowdrey said: “The truth is that I feel in good nick – I just haven’t capitalised on the starts I’ve made. “I have had a few 30s and 40s but not gone on with it. That’s the way it goes in this game. “Sometimes you can’t cash-in but hopefully I can remedy that soon and go on and get a big score.” Kent host Australia at Canterbury next week and Cowdrey would love to play against captain Michael Clarke’s side in the opening game of their Ashes tour. He said: “It can only be a positive for a young batsman like me to play against such a strong bowling unit like they have in Mitchell Johnson, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Nathan Lyon. “It will provide a stiff learning curve testing yourself against the best in the world and I would thrive on the challenge. I hope I get the opportunity to do so.” After playing in Friday night’s NatWest T20 Blast South Group loss against Hampshire in Canterbury, Cowdrey – whose top score in the competition this season is his 42 against Surrey at Beckenham – didn’t put his feet up on Saturday. He played for Lordswood in the Kent League, Premier Division clash against Sevenoaks Vine but he couldn’t prevent the bottomside losing by three wickets. Cowdrey was out for one and took 1-33 with his left-arm spin. Kent paceman Mitch Claydon enjoys the challenge of bowling the final over but not even his skill at doing it could prevent his side from a six-wicket loss against Hampshire in the NatWest T20 Blast South Group clash in Canterbury on Friday.
Visiting captain James Vince (99 not out) hit the fifth ball of Claydon’s over for four to see his side past Kent’s 183-5 with a ball to spare at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence.
Hampshire started their 18th and final over of the rain-reduced clash needing five to win, a few less than Claydon said he was hoping to play with.
He said: “I said to Colesy (Matt Coles) if he could leave me with 10 or 11 after he bowled the penultimate over, that would be perfect but five was always going to be a tough ask.
“It would have been a miracle to pull it off from there.”
Claydon, who finished with 0-37 off 3.5 overs, said his plan of attack for the final over was a simple one.
He said: “I just had to bang the yorkers out ( Hampshire scored four off the first four balls which also included a dot ball). That didn’t change with what turned out to be the final ball when the scores were level.
“We brought everyone up (to prevent the single) and as I ran in, I’ve seen him (Vince) go wide so I year’s T20 competition but thought they might struggle later on because of their lack of an overseas player.
“At the moment in the T20 they are punching above their weight. Take Somerset, for example, they had Chris Gayle who scored 150 and they still managed to get past them.
“They have decided to not go down the road of an overseas player and it is a fantastic opportunity for some of their young players to shine.
“At some stage it could cost them but the young players tend not to play with fear and they have a good balance of youth and experience that will help them.”
Comparisons will no doubt be drawn between Sam Billings and the last Kent wicketkeeper to play for England, Geraint Jones –after the former’s recent call-up. Fulton said: “Sam has probably got a greater weight of shot than Geraint Jones had and is the bigger hitter.
“Sam has that extra gear that Geraint didn’t have and I have seen enough of him to know he is a fine batter. Most importantly, though, he is a fantastic lad and it’s great he got a call up.”
Billings hit six fours in a cameo innings of 34 from 16 balls in England’s (302) three-wicket defeat to New Zealand in the third ODI, at Southampton on Sunday. This followed knocks of three and 12 by Billings in the first two matches. tried to go a wide yorker but he got a little bit of bat on it and that was it.”
But what did Claydon think of Kent’s performance, which was a second consecutive loss in the competition and saw Spitfires drop to fifth in the table?
He said: “I thought we were right in the game when we got 183 because the batters thought 160 would be a good score. But conditions definitely changed when we bowled – it was tough out there with plenty of dew about. We didn’t get the nip they did.
“Without making excuses, the ball was soaking wet and the field was wet but we also had enough key moments.
He added: We played 95% good cricket and lost it for 5% – that’s what cost us in the end.”
Spitfires play Essex at the same venue tonight (Thursday).
Tomorrow (Friday) they travel to the Oval to face Surrey. Both T20 matches start at 6.30pm. Kent then switch to LV= County Championship Division 2 action, against Northants starting on Saturday at Northampton. Kent’s leading wicket taker Matt Coles was an overwhelming winner of the Kent Online man-ofthe-match poll after the eightwicket LV= County Championship Division 2 defeat to Derbyshire at Canterbury last week. Coles polled 70% of the vote for his efforts, which included figures of 5-24 in the Derbyshire first innings and 2-75 in the second. Skipper Sam Northeast, who top scored with 85 in Kent’s first innings total of 205, received 26% of the vote while spinner Adam Riley received 4% after his career-best knock of 34 in the Kent first innings.