T20 Blast Finals Day: Kent beat Sussex to reach T20 Blast final

Kent Spitfires qualified for their third T20 Blast final as the 2007 winners beat Sussex by 21 runs.

Daniel Bell-Drummond top scored with 82, backed by a wonderful unbeaten 47 from 45-year-old Darren Stevens, as Kent posted 168-6 at Edgbaston.

They then bowled out the Sharks in the final over for 147 to book a final with Somerset (18:45 BST start).

Kent are in their first final since 2008, while Somerset also lost in their last final in 2011 in Cardiff.

After the stunning first finish to the first game, when Somerset came from nowhere to beat Hampshire, the second semi-final never turned into quite such a compelling contest.

After the early loss of England pair Zak Crawley and Joe Denly, the classy Bell-Drummond hit the highest score on Finals Day since Luke Wright's 92 for Sussex in the semi-final win over Somerset in 2018.

But it needed a 42-run stand with Kent's other England man Sam Billings and the ageless Stevens to take them to such a defendable score.

Sussex needed a good start from Wright and Phil Salt but they did not get it. Wright's cruel dismissal on 10 when the ball trickled onto his stumps from Matt Milnes' delivery meant that he could not surpass his own effort three years ago, which remains the Finals Day record individual score.

George Garton, one of three Sussex men who were part of the winning Hundred side for Southern Brave in August, weighed in with 41, to back up his earlier 2-24.

Of Sussex's Hundred heroes, Tymal Mills took three wickets and Chris Jordan offered late hope of a Somerset-style rescue with a breezy 13 in this, like Salt, his last game for the club.

But it was Kent who booked their chance of a second Edgbaston Finals Day win and the intoxicating promise of a meeting of the hop county against the cider county.

Kent top scorer Daniel Bell-Drummond:

"It was a great semi-final from us. It was good to get runs on the board and then we bowled brilliantly to defend that score.

"It was a complete performance other than a little wobble in the middle.

"Hopefully we can continue it into the final."

Sussex head coach James Kirtley:

"Clearly we put ourselves under pressure from the start and while we wrestled it back well but we never really got ahead of the game at any point.

"We have nurtured George Garton. He has benefited from that. We back him. We batted him at four in the Championship match a couple of weeks back and we back his all-round talent. I wish him well now in the IPL.

"I can see us being able to bolster in a couple of areas. We need to look at the squad as a whole properly. Chris Jordan and Phil Salt are hard people to replace. They are two big holes to fill. There aren't many batter-keepers available or someone with the skills of CJ.