Kent Spitfires reached the Vitality T20 Blast quarter-finals in dramatic fashion on Friday night.
Tawanda Muyeye and Harry Finch inspired them to a seven-wicket win against Essex in Canterbury.
Chasing 173 for victory in front of a bumper attendance, they shared a 114-run partnership, Muyeye finishing on 80 and Finch offering an eventful 64 to finish their Blast group-stage campaign in style.
And with Surrey edging past Sussex Sharks elsewhere, it was enough to ensure the 2021 winners of the competition reached the last-eight stage again.
Finch said: “When I came off there, obviously, I was a little bit disappointed not to finish it off.
“The first thing I saw as I walked off, I think Sussex needed 30-odd off 24 balls and straight away I thought ‘Oh no, it’s not going to happen.’.
“But that was a pretty special feeling and the scenes at the end were like watching England at the World Cup.
“So, that was pretty cool!”
Home captain Sam Billings had won the toss in front of a crowd of 5,289 and bowled first. Daniel Bell-Drummond replaced Chris Benjamin in Kent’s only change from their seven-wicket home win over Middlesex last weekend.
Paul Walter clipped a first Essex boundary through mid-wicket off Grant Stewart’s fifth ball (1-31), albeit Spitfires’ opening two overs went for just 10 runs.
But spinner Joe Denly (1-25) came on for Kent’s third over and instantly presented Michael Pepper with two full tosses that were sent to the leg-side boundary. In total, the over went for 18 runs and also included the visitors’ first maximum from Pepper to ease the pressure.
And the left-handed Walter followed suit with four more boundaries from Nathan Gilchrist (2-35) to put Essex into the ascendancy at 44-0 from four overs.
While things had started well from a Kent perspective at Hove, they had plenty of work to do themselves as Walters cracked another 10 runs from two Fred Klaassen (0-36) balls to move them to 65-0 after the powerplay.
But just when Kent were in desperate need of some inspiration, Dutch international Klaassen delivered some. He flew away outstretched at point to take a sublime flying catch to dismiss Pepper for 28, attempting a reverse sweep, from Matt Parkinson’s leg-spin (1-22).
Essex wicketkeeper Jordan Cox had blitzed his maiden Blast century a night earlier, although he added just six before he was cleaned up by Joey Evison (1-22) from the first ball of the 10th over.
The away team reached the 100-run mark in the 12th over.
But Spitfires still hadn’t found a way to dismiss Walter, who brought up his half-century in 34 balls with a single, at this stage as Parkinson and Evison continued to peg Essex back well.
The brave decision to get Denly back into the attack paid dividends when Walter picked out Finch on the leg-side fence to go for 52 off 37 balls to leave Essex 116-3 after 15 overs.
But Gilchrist’s return to the attack proved to be a real mixed bag.
He was sent for leg-side sixes by Charlie Allison and then Matt Critchley and, although the latter was well-caught by Stewart, Dale Benkenstein delivered a leg-side maximum off his first delivery – before carving to Parkinson from his second to complete an eventful six Gilchrist balls.
Allison appeared set for a well-made 50 when he picked out Leaning at log-on for 48 off 33 deliveries from the second ball of Stewart’s final over to leave the visitors 165-6.
Three twos on the spin from Essex skipper Simon Harmer helped him finish 12 not out off six balls.
Opener Muyeye set the pace in Kent’s run-chase and took Shane Snater’s opening over (0-30) for nine, backing that up by sending Pakistan overseas Mohammad Amir (1-26) for three fours to leave the hosts 21-0 from two overs.
It was apparent Bell-Drummond hadn’t fully recovered from his hamstring injury and was struggling somewhat, running between the wickets – so had decided to deal in boundaries. He cracked two from Mackenzie Jones’ (0-25) first over.
Walter was enjoying a fine all-round game and dismissed Bell-Drummond for 13 when he sliced him high into the offside to leave Spitfires 46-1.
Finch had been in decent himself and got straight into his stride with a cover-driven first-ball four before consecutive Muyeye boundaries off Walter (1-30) brought the home team to 59-1 after the powerplay.
The in-form Muyeye reached another T20 Blast half-century from 31 balls with a quick single from spinner Benkenstein (0-23).
Finch then struck successive maximums off spinner Harmer – the second just over Amir’s head on the boundary – to bring the hosts to the 100-run mark in the 11th over.
In the next over, he add 10 more runs from two Walter deliveries, albeit was dropped by Noah Thain at deep backward square leg as he added another six in a lacklustre Essex fielding display.
Finch made his second Blast half-century in just 24 balls through a glorious cover-driven four from Benkenstein’s bowling.
Another Finch boundary, backed up by two more from Muyeye off Jones, meant Spitfires required just 17 runs from the last five overs – and the eyes of Kent fans were arguably more on Sussex’s result against Surrey than the end of their own match by now.
Muyeye finally went to a standing ovation when he picked out Benkenstein from Critchley’s bowling (1-18) to leave the home team 160-2 from 16 overs.
He was quickly followed back by Finch, who was castled by Amir, attempting to charge down the track and go over the top.
That added some jeopardy to the result but Billings clipped Snater for a leg-side maximum and a scrambled two off a no-ball got Spitfires across the line in 17.2 overs.
It left everyone waiting to see what would happen at the end of Sussex’s massive run-chase against Surrey, with Kent head coach Adam Hollioake and his players watching the culmination of the game on the big screen on their own pitch.
And Surrey bowlers Sam Curran and Chris Jordan held their nerve to do Kent an almighty favour as Sussex lost by seven runs.
Kent return to County Championship Division 2 action against Glamorgan in Cardiff from Tuesday – and now also have a T20 Blast quarter-final date to look forward to.
They will travel to Lancashire for their quarter-final in September, with a T20 Blast finals day spot on offer.
