Bell-Drummond, Stevens hand Kent final berth

No one's perhaps ageing better than Darren Stevens. Coming into the side for Adam Milne who's off to the IPL, the 45-year-old all-rounder put in another fine batting performance, scoring an unbeaten 47 off only 28 balls and adding important runs alongside Daniel Bell-Drummond (82 off 51) to help Kent beat Sussex by 21 runs and book a place in the T20 Blast final against Somerset.

Coming in to bat in the 12th over, when three wickets inside five balls had rocked the score to 94 for 5, Stevens added a crucial 42 runs for the sixth wicket with opening batsman Bell-Drummond. The partnership helped Kent keep up with the initial momentum built by Bell-Drummond earlier in the innings and also helped the side finish strong once the opener had departed. Despite coming up against wily death bowlers in Tymal Mills and Chris Jordan, Kent picked up 34 runs in the last 4 overs after Mills had set the cat among the pigeons in the middle overs.

At 168 for 8 after 20 overs, Kent had the tools to strike early in the powerplay and get ahead in the match, and so they did. Fred Klaassen struck twice in the powerplay to reduce Sussex to 39 for 3 which soon became 43 for 4 and 57 for 5, with one wicket each to Stevens and Qais Ahmad. It was a long walk back from there for Sussex who found hope in George Garton, who went on to make the most of his dropped catch and score 41 off 23, but it wasn't just enough on the night. Milnes picked Garton in the 16th over and the game was all but done from there.

Milnes and Fred Klaassen finished with seven wickets between them as Sussex were bowled out for 147 with five balls to spare.

Brief Scores: Kent 168/8 in 20 overs (Bell-Drummond 82, Stevens 47*; Mills 3-33) beat Sussex 147 in 19.1 overs (Garton 41; Klaassen 4-17, Milnes 3-22)by 21 runs.