Daniel Bell-Drummond scored a brilliant century as Kent Spitfires ended Somerset’s six-match winning start to their Vitality Blast T20 South Group campaign on Sunday.
The 31-year-old registered 100 from 49 balls, smashing 12 fours and four sixes, and dominated a record-breaking opening stand of 158 runs with Tawanda Muyeye as the visitors posted a formidable 228-5 after being put in.
Tom Banton smashed 68 from 33 balls and dominated an opening stand of 91 runs with Will Smeed to give the Somerset reply the perfect start.
But they were unable to maintain the onslaught, and Joey Evison (2-24) and Nathan Gilchrist (2-50) claimed two wickets apiece as Sam Billings’ side earned a four-run victory.
Kent boast a decent record in matches at Taunton in recent years and Muyeye and Bell-Drummond showed no signs of being intimidated by Somerset’s 100 per cent winning start to the campaign.
The duo initially matched one another blow for blow, the powerplay yielding 69 runs, and their hundred came up in 8.5 overs as Somerset’s bowlers were forced onto the back foot.
Bell-Drummond was first to 50 via 29 balls with five fours and two sixes while Muyeye faced two deliveries more to attain his half-century as the partnership went from strength-to-strength.
Especially severe on ex-Kent overseas bowler Matt Henry (0-40), Bell-Drummond took the New Zealander for a six and a four off successive balls as Spitfires raced to 118 without loss at the halfway stage in front of a sell-out 7,000 crowd.
Bell-Drummond took centre stage thereafter, facing a mere 19 deliveries more to go to a magnificent hundred amid a blaze of boundaries.
When he drove Lewis Goldsworthy (0-26) to the cover boundary in the 13th over to advance the score to 151, he and Muyeye had established a new highest opening partnership for Kent in matches against Somerset, which eclipsed the 150 runs amassed by Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly in a game at Canterbury in 2016.
No sooner had Bell-Drummond raised his third century in domestic T20 cricket than he got out, flashing at a ball from Riley Meredith (3-45) and offering a catch behind.
Green then had Billings held in the deep before he could inflict damage while Lewis Gregory (1-51) bowled Muyeye in the 17th over to further check the visitors’ progress.
But Harry Finch and Jack Leaning ensured there was to be little respite for the home side, staging a fourth-wicket stand of 25 runs at the death.
Somerset chased 230 to defeat Middlesex in their last appearance at Taunton three days earlier, and Tom Banton and Will Smeed opened up in a manner that suggested they believed another successful pursuit was in their capabilities.
Dropped by Gilchrist in the deep off Fred Klaassen (1-30) when he had scored two, Banton clubbed three sixes and a four in one Grant Stewart (0-27) over to rub salt into the wound.
Making the most of his escape, Banton went to 50 from 22 balls and Somerset’s opening pair put Kent’s seamers under the pump to raise 81 runs from the powerplay and bring the required rate down to 10.6.
Kent earned themselves temporary respite, Gilchrist pinning Banton lbw for 68 with the score 91-1 in the seventh over, and Smeed then departed for 24, top-edging a short-pitched Klaassen delivery to third man.
The onus was now on Tom Kohler-Cadmore and Tom Abell to play expansively, and the third-wicket pair plundered three boundaries in a Gilchrist over to keep the asking rate below 12 runs-per-over.
Kohler-Cadmore hit Wes Agar (0-51) for an effortless straight six, followed up with a pull shot for four and then admired an Abell swish that went to the fine leg boundary as the stand reached 50 from 24 balls.
Kent breathed a sigh of relief when Kohler-Cadmore, having plundered 38 from 20 balls, tried to hit Evison over the top and holed out on the long-off boundary.
Gilchrist removed Abell for 22 in the next over – at which point Somerset needed a further 70 to win from 34 balls.
Evison then accounted for Gregory, caught at long-on, as he visitors regained the upper hand.
Somerset needed 50 off three overs and former Kent batsman Sean Dickson and Ben Green gave it their best shot, trading in sixes to heap pressure back onto the bowlers.
Green cleared the rope on three occasions at the expense of Gilchrist in the 18th over and Dickson helped himself to another six off Klaassen to leave Somerset to chase 19 off the final over, bowled by Tom Rogers (1-41).
Green holed out in the deep off the first ball, departing for a 12-ball 25, while Dickson finished unbeaten on 31 as Somerset fell just short in the run-fest.
Roger said: “Somerset have a great record when bowling first and then chasing here, so to beat them, feels like a pretty big result.
“First and foremost, credit must go to our two opening batters. Tawanda Muyeye and Daniel Bell-Drummond set a tremendous platform and our middle-order then contributed really well at the end to get us up to a good total.
“Somerset are a dangerous side, but I thought Joey Evison bowed really well for us through the middle overs and Fred Klaassen sent down three tight overs despite having to defend the short square-leg boundary.
“It gets tough when you have to defend 12 so I was reasonably confident that I could defend 19 in the last over. Taking regular wickets was important because that meant we were not facing set batters at the death.
“We lost a tight finish to Surrey last time and had a wash-out against Middlesex so this was an important game to win. It keeps us in touch.”
Spitfires will host Gloucestershire in their next T20 match at Canterbury on Wednesday.
