T20 Blast: Matt Milnes bowls Kent to crushing Glamorgan win

Dan Douthwaite of Glamorgan celebrates the wicket of Kent's Sam Billings

Kent seamer Matt Milnes was the match-winner as they defeated Glamorgan by a whopping 40 runs in a low-scoring T20 Blast match in Cardiff.

Milnes claimed 5-22 as Glamorgan stumbled to 104 all out chasing a modest target of 145 on a tricky wicket.

He dismissed key men Marnus Labuschagne and Colin Ingram, both caught and bowled.

Jordan Cox top-scored with 32 not out in Kent's stop-start 144-7.

Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard suggested afterwards that the pitch involved would be taken out of use.

It was previously labelled as dangerous during an abandoned match in 2015, but had been re-laid and used successfully since.

Most of the Kent batsmen got a start but England T20 squad member Sam Billings, with 30 off 30 balls, was the only other player apart from Cox to pass 15.

Glamorgan's bowlers were mainly tidy, with spinner Prem Sisodiya opening and bowling straight through to take 2-28.

Labuschagne's 2-22 and Dan Douthwaite's 2-17 in three overs made sure that Kent rarely had batsmen well set enough to accelerate.

Glamorgan in turn could not put together any partnerships, or even produce any high-scoring overs, as the Kent seamers took early wickets.

Labuschagne reached 22 before driving a catch back to Milnes and Ingram made 17 before chipping one up in the air against the same bowler.

Glamorgan kept giving Kent catching practice and every chance was accepted as wickets fell regularly throughout, with the batsmen looking unsure as to their best plan of attack.

Cox took a stunner on the long-off boundary to end a mini-flourish from James Weighell, top scorer with 24, and the visitors ran out easy winners as Milnes celebrated career-best figures.

Kent now have four wins from five games, while Glamorgan have just one from four.

Kent bowler Matt Milnes told BBC Radio Kent:

"It's a very happy dressing room, we lost last night (Tuesday, against Somerset) so it was great to bounce back today on a tricky wicket.

"The batters were brilliant to get up to 140, Coxy (Jordan Cox) and a few other lads at the end got us to a very competitive score. Then the bowling was very good, very much a team effort, everyone nailed their plans to bash the wicket hard and we executed quite well.

"It's a bit of a lottery (bowling in) T20 so I'll take the five-wicket haul. Their two overseas guys were big wickets because they can take the game away from you.

"It's a change of role for me bowling in the middle but, because of the way the pitch was, it was important to keep bashing away at a hard length and let the pitch do the work."

Glamorgan coach Matthew Maynard told BBC Sport Wales:

"We didn't get any partnerships going, we had a bit of a slow start and tried to get some momentum back but no-one kicked on and it never happened.

"It was a difficult wicket to score on and both sides found that. Milnes bowled brilliantly and we can't just rely on Marnus and Nick Selman.

"I think there's a case for that (not using that pitch again). It was relaid (after previous problems), we played the Dutch on it in 2019 and it was a belter of a wicket.

"Today there were moving plates on the pitch, the first time I've seen that here. (Groundsman) Robin Saxton is generally right at the top of the list in terms of great white-ball cricket wickets, he's disappointed and pitch nine will be left alone for a little while."