Roy, Clark star as Surrey demolish Kent

Jason Roy blazed a trail for Surrey Getty Images

Surrey 106 for 1 (Roy 50*) beat Kent 102 (Crawley 31, Clark 3-26) by nine wickets

An unbeaten half-century from Jason Roy helped Surrey to a thoroughly dominant nine-wicket victory against Kent Spitfires to keep his side firmly in the hunt for the knockout stages of the T20 Blast.

Surrey raced to 106 for 1 inside just nine overs to canter to victory following Kent's anaemic performance with the bat, having been bowled out for a paltry 102 with a full three overs to spare.

Roy made it a week to remember, following up an unbeaten hundred against Sussex on Wednesday night with a measured 50 not out as Surrey romped home with more than 11 overs to spare to stay firmly in the hunt near the top of the South Group. Defeat firmly ended any faint and lingering hope Kent had of progressing in the tournament.

Roy put on 63 with Josh Phillippe, after Laurie Evans hit a breezy 25 and was the only wicket to fall for Surrey, who hardly got out of second gear all day and eased to their fourth straight win in the competition.

Kent were blown away with the bat, bowled out for 102 inside 17 overs.

If there was anything memorable about a dismal night with the bat for Kent, it was the nature of two freak wickets. Ekansh Singh won't forget this T20 Blast debut in a hurry, treading on his stumps to get on top of a Jordan Clark short ball, with seemingly nobody in the ground noticing until Ollie Pope went to collect a throw-in to the stumps.

To cap off a poor display with the bat, the innings meandered to a comical end. Harry Finch was run out at the non-striker's end after lifting his bat to evade a drive from Matt Milnes that flicked Sean Abbott's hand before going on to hit the stumps.

The tale of the innings was a combination of poor shots, odd dismissals and tight Surrey bowling as the visitors kept their foot on the neck of the Kent batters and never let go.

Clark led the way in a dominant Surrey attack, taking 3 for 26, backed up by a miserly spell of 2 for 5 from three overs from Chris Jordan. Dan Lawrence twirled away with two wickets, while Reece Topley and Sean Abbott both picked up a wicket apiece.

In truth, Kent never really got going. Only Zak Crawley with 31 off 19 balls looked like withstanding the Surrey onslaught, while Daniel Bell-Drummond, Finch and Jake Lintott registered double-figures.

Twenty20 Cup (England)

Central & West Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
NOR972280.557
GLO954200.024
SOM945160.193
WAR94516-0.005
WOR94516-0.585
GLA93612-0.171
Cross Pool
TeamMWLPTNRR
NOR22083.425
GLO22082.825
WOR22082.525
SOM22081.669
GLA22080.777
NOT22080.496
DUR21142.325
WAR21141.772
LEI21140.117
SUR21140.05
HAM2114-0.674
ESS2114-3.04
DER2020-0.908
LAN2020-1.5
YOR2020-1.564
KEN2020-2.434
SUS2020-2.51
MID2020-3.278
North Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
YOR962261.215
NOT963240.213
LAN95322-0.121
DUR945160.1
DER925120.421
LEI9278-1.835
South Group
TeamMWLPTNRR
SUR963241.098
HAM963240.504
ESS954201.019
KEN94516-0.562
MID93612-1.012
SUS93610-0.964