Kent Spitfires captain Sam Billings hailed a “clinical” performance from his team to thrash Surrey with six overs to spare on Sunday.
Having bowled out their hosts for 116 at The Oval, Billings and Harry Finch guided the Spitfires to an emphatic eight-wicket T20 Blast success.
It was the perfect response to a home loss to Essex on Friday night at Canterbury.
“That’s what you want from a team,” stated Billings. “We know we were way off in all facets (on Friday), and actually, it’s quite nice if you have a night like that early on in the tournament, if you use it to positive kind of learning.
“We’re very honest in our debrief, as always, and after the first two games, I think it was much more in line with Sunday’s performance, where we were just really well-oiled, well-drilled and pretty clinical.
“I think it was brilliant – very pleasing against the top side.
”T20 cricket, obviously, everyone watches the IPL and you see postage stamps on flat wickets with an impact player. People think they can just hit their way out of it. We came unstuck with that on Friday night at home.
“When you come on a normal Oval wicket (you can do that), but it wasn’t, so you had to adapt.
“I thought we did that brilliantly with the ball. We were brave. We planned some things, which was really nice to see come off.
“Keith Dudgeon on debut came in and just set the tone, which makes a massive difference with the ball. We had only taken one powerplay wicket all year up to this point, and he changed the game and set us off on the right foot.
“No-one probably thinks about Keith Dudgeon with the way Harry Finch batted and other people stepped up. But they’re the kind of performances when they come in on debut that really count towards a team win.”
Finch put on an unbroken 89 in less than 10 overs for the third wicket alongside Billings.
The former was making his first appearance of the summer for Kent and the skipper reckons it shows the quality of player available to him.
“If we’re being completely honest, it’s the first year in a very long time where we genuinely could (make changes),” said Billings.
“I think I’ve changed the team every game so far. The squad and the options we have at our disposal, we’ve never really had that at Kent, certainly in white-ball cricket.
“You’ve got Ekansh Singh coming through, playing for the Lions and doing brilliantly. You’ve got Ben Dawkins as well, who could easily be in this team. Grant Stewart, obviously an international, who played at the last World Cup, Joey Evison as well, and Matt Parkinson didn’t play.
“All of a sudden, you’re looking at it and thinking we’ve got a really strong squad.
“For Finchy to come in and make a statement like that, he’s been in great form.
“He’s been rightly disappointed as well to be left out, but put in a performance and be that dominant, that’s what we ask. We haven’t had that as an environment in a long time.”
