Dave Allen: Kent At The Ageas Bowl

Kent are another side we have played T20s against in every year since the start in 2003 which wa at Beckenham. In 2004, Shane Watson’s 97* and Mascarenhas 3-20 took us to an easy victory but the following year we won by five wickets with a last ball single (Pothas 58*, Greg Lamb 4-28) as Michael Carberry scored 56 – for Kent.

In 2006 & 2007 we were still playing Kent just once in the season and in 2007 at home, we tied on 153 each (Rob Key 59, Mascarenhas 3-17). Then in 2008 we played home-and-away for the first time, winning easily at the Rose Bowl, after posting 197-6 at the Rose Bowl, still their highest home total v Kent.

In 2009, Darren Stevens 62* took Kent to a seven-wicket victory but Hampshire were on top in two low-scoring matches in 2010, and later that year won the trophy for the first time. 

In 2011, Hampshire won easily, having dismissed Kent for 72 (Mascarenhas 3-29) the third lowest by any side against Hampshire. In 2012 Kent won a thriller by just three runs, mainly thanks to 46* by Kent’s Sam Northeast, and we won one each in 2013, while in 2014, Carberry hit 73 in a winning score of 171-7 in a year when we did the double over Kent (Briggs 3-28).

Kent chased down 178-5 to win in 2015 despite 66 from Vince but we defended 158-8 and victory by nine runs the following year, while in 2017 Kent just defended 159-6 (Afridi 4-26). In 2018 we were set just 140 to win but reduced to 20-5, we struggled to 88 all out (Stoinis 4-17) our second lowest T20 against any side.

Last year our 145-5 wasn’t quite enough, as Kent won by two wickets with one ball to spare.