Previous defeat means nothing says Walker

Matt Walker insists that Kent Spitfires’ defeat at Surrey in the T20 group stages will count for little in their quarter-final clash.

Kent visit The Oval on Thursday with a place at finals day up for grabs. Spitfires suffered a comprehensive six-wicket reverse in their final group match against Surrey less than a fortnight ago.

But Walker (pictured), who signed a new contract to remain at Kent until 2022 this week, says that means nothing when the teams lock horns again.

“Each game is very different in this format,” said Walker. “It doesn’t matter what has happened before. It’s a new game, new conditions and everyone is going to be up for it.

“We talk about all of our T20 games in a debrief but you don’t want to over-analyse sometimes. On the day, we were probably 15-20 runs short, we should have got 175 in the end and that probably was the difference. “They had two players that were in and if we had got one of them out in the powerplay it might have been a different game but that’s T20.

“It’s all about playing those big moments and putting pressure on the opponents. “We know that we weren’t quite at our best. We’ve got to make sure that we don’t worry about them too much. We’ll do our usual preparation and come out with a plan for our bowlers and batters, and be ready. “It’s about making sure everyone is confident in their plans.”

Kent batsman Zak Crawley has been awarded his first Test central contract by England.