Tawanda Muyeye’s second century of the summer helped steer Kent to a two-wicket victory at Gloucestershire on the final day of an absorbing Rothesay County Championship Division Two clash in Bristol.
Muyeye hit 108 off just 129 balls before, perhaps fittingly, on-loan Surrey man James Taylor hit the winning runs with the bat.
Kent head coach Adam Hollioake said: “What pleased me most about our performance was winning. It has been hard for us over the last years. I think we won two games last season and none going into the fourth match.
“So, to win two in a row is very pleasing. The object of the game is to win, but other than that, I am most pleased with the way the boys have shut all the noise out.
“It has been well publicised how I closed all the social media down at the club. We have focused fully on what we have been doing and I think we are getting rewarded for that.
“I’m probably the most unpopular man in Kent, but I can live with that. I talk to the guys about keeping clear minds, saying your mind is like an iphone and the more thoughts you have it is like having all the apps open on your phones.
“The fundamentals of playing cricket have been the same for 200 years and shutting out all the noise and negativity helps focus on them. We are not the best side in the world, but it’s an improvement.”
Taylor had claimed the final wicket of Ed Middleton (22), caught by Sam Northeast at second slip, for a return of 4-54 and match figures of 10-106 on his Kent debut at the start of the day as the visitors were set a target of 261 for victory.
On an excellent pitch still rewarding good batting and bowling, Kent knew they faced a challenging task to score the required runs.
They had progressed to 22 in the fifth over when Ben Dawkins drove at a full ball from Gabe Bell (4-87) and was well caught low down at point by Ben Charlesworth.
Two runs later, Zak Crawley (17) departed in disappointing fashion, bowled by Bell, aiming a big shot into the leg side.
Gloucestershire hopes of pressing home their advantage were then thwarted by Northeast and Muyeye, the latter going on the counter-attack to strike three fours in a Matt Taylor over. Will Williams finished a testing six-over opening spell with figures of 1-9 but Kent had advances to 64-2 by the time rain saw an early lunch taken.
Northeast was only on four and the second ball of the resumption saw him pinned lbw pushing half forward to Williams.
With the floodlights shining brightly under dark clouds, Kent’s middle order faced a tough assignment.
Muyeye went to his second fifty of the match having looked in confident form from the start. He found an equally solid partner in skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond and the pair gradually put their team in a strong position.
Bell-Drummond (38) hit six crisp boundaries before being bowled pushing forward defensively to Bell. At 146-4, Kent still required 115 and a compelling game was back in the balance.
Both Muyeye and Chris Benjamin had looked in good nick in the first innings and again they tilted things Kent’s way by moving the score to 173-4 at tea. The final session saw Muyeye bring up an entertaining hundred with his 17th four, guided through backward point off Williams.
Having narrowly missed out on three figures in the first innings, the 25-year-old leapt up and punched the air before raising both bat and helmet towards the skies. But the job wasn’t done when he perished soon afterwards, caught behind driving at Matt Taylor.
At 204-5, Kent still needed 57. That had become 30 when Benjamin’s second important innings of the game came to an end on 42, bowled by Bell off an inside edge.
It was 248-7 when Ekansh Singh made 18 before being caught at short mid-wicket off Williams and Keith Dudgeon departed to a poor shot, skying a top-edge off the same bowler with eight runs still needed.
That left Joey Evison (12 not out) and Taylor to get Kent over the line, the latter hitting the winning boundary off Williams to complete a match he will long remember.
The only sour note for Kent was that they finished with 18 points after three points were deducted for a slow over-rate.
Report via ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
