Kent T20 Preview: Howell hopes history repeats itself at Beckenham
3 June 2016
Gloucestershire will be hoping for a repeat of last year’s nine wicket win when they take on Kent Spitfires at Beckenham this evening.
Michael Klinger (69*) and Ian Cockbain (54*) helped the visitors chase down the 157 needed for victory with two overs to spare after Benny Howell had earlier taken 3-18.
And the allrounder - who was named man-of-the-match in his side’s win over Middlesex on Thursday - said they would be spurred on by the memories of last year’s clash.
He said: “We beat them at Beckenham quite easily so we will take confidence from that performance.
“It is nice to have our first points on the board after the win over Middlesex and we are looking forward to hopefully putting in a similar performance against Kent.”
Reflecting on the victory against Middlesex Benny singled out the number of contributions from across the team – particularly with the bat.
He added: “I thought it was a good team performance. It made a change that Maxi (Michael Klinger) didn’t get runs for us but Ian Cockbain, Chris Dent and I all made good contributions to help us get over the line. It’s our first win and will give us some momentum to take into the Kent game on Friday.”
Like Gloucestershire, tonight’s opponents have won one and lost one from their opening two games of this year’s NatWest T20 Blast. They romped to an eight wicket win over Somerset in their first match before falling 9 runs short against Hampshire.
And Benny has picked out England batsman Sam Billings as a man to be wary of on Friday night.
He said: “Sam Billings has just come back from the IPL and he is going to be a challenge. He is going to be the biggest threat but they’ve got a team of good hitters.”
Gloucestershire have named an unchanged squad for the trip to Beckenham.
Gloucestershire Squad: Michael Klinger (c), Ian Cockbain, Chris Dent, Benny Howell, Hamish Marshall, Kieran Noema-Barnett, Liam Norwell, David Payne, Gareth Roderick (w), Tom Smith, Jack Taylor, Matt Taylor, Andrew Tye, Graeme Van Buuren.
Kent Spitfires Squad (probable): Sam Northeast (c), Joe Denly, Daniel Bell-Drummond, Tom Latham, Darren Stevens, Alex Blake, Fabian Cowdrey, Sam Billings (w), Matt Coles, David Griffiths, James Tredwell, Matt Hunn, Ivan Thomas.
You can follow the action from Kent v Gloucestershire as it happens by following @gloscricket on Twitter.
Opta Facts
- The Spitfires have only lost one of their last five home games (W3 T1).
- Gloucestershire have only won in Kent once before (L3) but that victory did come in the most recent visit there.
- Gloucestershire have won the last two times these sides have met on a Friday (L1).
- Benny Howell took 3/18 off 4 overs for Gloucestershire when his side last faced the Spitfires in Kent.
Head to Head
| Kent | Gloucestershire | |
| Completed Games | 9 | 9 |
| Won | 7 | 2 |
| Loss | 2 | 7 |
| Tied | 0 | 0 |
| Win % | 77.8 | 22.2 |
