Essex captures Friends Provident Trophy
Essex beat Kent by five wickets to win England's 50-over final at Lord's on Saturday with seven balls to spare.
It was Kent's seventh defeat in a one-day final since they last won 30 years ago. Kent also relinquished their Twenty20 title in a last-ball thriller last month.
Ryan ten Doeschate and Grant Flower shared an unbroken stand of 57 to give the Eagles the Friends Provident trophy with 218-5 in reply to 214 from Kent.
Flower top-scored with 70 and hit the winning runs in the 49th over.
Essex put on 32 for the first wicket, before Mark Pettini was trapped leg before wicket by Azhar Mahmood.
Mahmood then bowled Jason Gallian to leave Essex on 60-2 and Robbie Joseph took three wickets to give Kent a realistic chance of victory. Torres edged out by hundredth of a second
However, Kent was unable to take its chances. In the 44th over, with Essex on 186-5, Ten Doeschate was dropped by Darren Stevens after hitting a delivery from Yasir Arafat up in the air. Two overs later Arafat missed the chance to run out Ten Doeschate from close range.
Kent needed half-centuries from Ryan McLaren (63) and Martin van Jaarsveld (58) after being reduced to 100-6.
The Spitfires' opening duo of Rob Key and Joe Denly managed just 15 runs before the former was dismissed for 7, caught by James Foster off former Kent bowler David Masters.
Denly quickly followed, bowled by Graham Napier for 11.
Incidentally, Kent had defeated Essex in the Twenty20 Cup semifinals in July.
Scorecard: Kent
J L Denly b Napier (19 balls, 2 fours) 11
*R W T Key c Foster b Masters (13 balls, 1 four) 7
M van Jaarsveld c Cook b Wright (75 balls, 4 fours) 58
J M Kemp b Masters (31 balls, 2 fours) 16
D I Stevens c Foster b Wright (6 balls) 0
G O Jones lbw b Kaneria (39 balls, 3 fours) 19
Azhar Mahmood c Flower b Kaneria (8 balls) 2
R McLaren b Bopara (71 balls, 4 fours) 63
Yasir Arafat b Bopara (34 balls, 2 fours) 27
J C Tredwell run out (0 balls) 0
R H Joseph not out (5 balls) 2
Total (all out; 50 overs) 214 Extras (lb7, nb 2) 9
Fall of wickets: 1-15 (Key), 2-19 (Denly), 3-58 (Kemp), 4-59 (Stevens), 5-94 (Jones), 6-100 (Mahmood), 7-138 (van Jaarsveld), 8-204 (Arafat), 9-209 (Tredwell), 10-214 (McLaren).
**Bowling card:**Masters 10-2-34-2,
Napier 8-1-23-1,
Wright 8-0-36-2,
Bopara 8-0-46-2,
Kaneria 10-0-42-2,
ten Doeschate 6-0-26-0.
Scorecard: Essex
*M L Pettini lbw b Azhar Mahmood (18 balls, 1 four) 10
J E R Gallian b Mahmood (45 balls, 3 fours) 28
A N Cook c Stevens b Joseph (52 balls, 4 fours) 33
R S Bopara lbw b Joseph (20 balls) 7
G W Flower not out (97 balls, 6 fours) 70
J S Foster c Jones b Joseph (35 balls, 1 four) 18
RN ten Doeschate not out (29 balls, 2 fours) 30
Total (5 wkts; 48.5 overs) 218 Extras (lb 7, w 11, nb 4) 22
Fall of wickets 1-32 (Pettini), 2-60 (Gallian), 3-88 (Bopara), 4-93 (Cook), 5-161 (Foster).
Did not bat: G R Napier, C J C Wright, D D Masters, Danish Kaneria.
Bowling card:
Mahmood 9.5-0-53-2,
Arafat 9-1-40-0,
Joseph 10-1-40-3,
McLaren 10-0-34-0,
Stevens 8-0-35-0,
Tredwell 2-0-9-0.
Essex win by 5 wickets.
Man of the Match: G W Flower (Essex).