County Championship: Kent pip Middlesex to Division Three title
- Published
Kent's Division Three title came just six days after they won the T20 Blast
LV= County Championship Division One, Canterbury (day four): |
Middlesex 147 & 363: Stoneman 109, Simpson 46; Milnes 5-87 |
Kent 138 & 375-8: Robinson 112, Muyeye 89, Crawley 47 |
Kent (19 pts) beat Middlesex (3 pts) by two wickets |
Kent held their nerve to beat Middlesex by two wickets and claim the County Championship Division Three title.
Having been set a target of 373, they knocked off the 98 runs they needed on the final day for the loss of three wickets despite a tense finish.
Tawanda Muyeye went for 89, adding just eight to his overnight not out score.
But Matt Milnes hit the winning boundary off Toby Roland-Jones as Kent reached 375-8 to make it four wins out of four since the Championship resumed.
Their form in September has been in stark contrast to that earlier in the season, when they failed to win any of their 10 matches in the initial phase of the competition.
Victory completed a triumphant week for Kent, who beat Somerset in the T20 Blast final at Edgbaston on Saturday.
Resuming on 275-5, they added 20 before Muyeye set off for a single, but was sent back by partner Darren Stevens and run out by Toby Roland-Jones' direct hit from mid-off.
Stevens, for once, was unable to be the Kent hero as he edged Roland-Jones to Sam Robson at second slip on 14.
Marcus O'Riordan fell in similar fashion for 26 off Martin Andersson, but Grant Stewart batted sensibly in an unbeaten 37 before Milnes found the boundary with a thick edge to third man to complete Kent's victory.
Kent's Tawanda Muyeye:
"Everyone's buzzing. We came back from Birmingham with everyone a bit slumped and tired from the celebrations so we had to muster up the energy.
"Younger guys like me and Ollie Robinson had to step up and show what we could do.
"I was pretty happy because I haven't batted for long enough this season and I've thrown my wicket away at times, but Ollie and I open the batting in the 50-over stuff and we tried to do better here.
"We managed to do what we wanted to do and just break it down into small patches. We can all bat deep. Nathan Gilchrist bats like Kevin Pietersen in the nets. There was no doubt in my mind we were going to win."
Middlesex's Tim Murtagh:
"It was a really good game of four-day cricket and a really good advertisement for Championship cricket, going into the final day with all results possible.
"I'm really proud of the boys. We're at the back end of a long hard season and a lot of our guys have played a lot more cricket this season that they ever have done, so there are some pretty tired, weary bodies.
"Credit to the boys, they kept going, even right at the end there they were picking up wickets at the death. It could have gone either way at the end."