Payne Heroics Not Enough At Canterbury
29 August 2014
David Payne took five wickets before Gloucestershire suffered the bitter disappointment of losing their Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-final by 24 runs to Kent at Canterbury.
The left-arm seamer celebrated his new three-year contract with 5-44 from 9.3 overs as the home side collapsed from 215-4 at one stage to be bowled out for 242 in 48.3 overs after winning the toss.
Gloucestershire made a bright start in reply through Chris Dent (40) and Will Tavare (19), but were eventually dismissed for 218 in 47.3 overs, despite Gareth Roderick's 43, Will Gidman's 39 and Benny Howell's 33.
Sam Northeast made 78 for Kent, but Sam Billings was the match-winner with a rapid 61 off just 36 balls, with 7 fours and 3 sixes.
Payne, who had taken wickets with successive balls at the start to remove Rob Key and Ben Harmison, wrapped up the tail, aided skilfully by Craig Miles (3-48).
A slow pitch made fast scoring tough for all the batsmen apart from the hugely promising Billings and it was generally felt that the match was evenly poised at halfway.
So it proved in a see-saw contest, which saw Gloucestershire in with a realistic chance inside the final five overs before falling short of their target.
After the game acting skipper Alex Gidman admitted: "It's a hammer blow losing a quarter-final, but we have to learn from it.
"Sam Billings played an exceptional innings and at halfway we weren't sure whether he had got Kent up to a par score or slightly better.
"We were backing ourselves to get the runs, but in truth the top six batsmen did not contribute enough to give the lower order a chance.
"Kent had one batsman make 70-odd and another 60-odd. None of us could manage to match them and that was the difference.
"The pitch was never going to get any easier and, while we still had a sniff with ten overs to go, it was always going to be tough from there on in."
Kent were drawn away to Warwickshire in the semi-finals, which will also see Durham entertain Nottinghamshire.
For more details of the game at Canterbury click on Cricket and then Match Reports.
