It was an atmosphere of joy indeed on the Finals day at the T20 Blast 2021 as Kent Spitfires went on to win their first-ever final in the last 14 years. The hard-fought win was also special, given that this was their first-ever appearance in the final in 13 years after an antagonising final loss by three runs against Middlesex in the 2008 season.
Jordan Cox and Joe Denly turned out to be the heroes with the bat and ball respectively for the Spitfires, who had reached the final by beating Sussex in the second semi-final of the T20 Blast Finals Day. The first semi-final was won dramatically by Somerset when they defeated Hampshire, chasing down 151 after being down to 34-5 to win the game with two wickets in hand.
In the final, though, nothing dramatic happened as Kent went about their defence of 167 in a very methodical way with Denly removing Tom Banton off the very second delivery of the Somerset innings. That set the tone for the Kent bowlers who then went on to pick wickets at regular intervals, eventually reducing the Taunton based side to 119-9 in the 18th over before some nice shots by Josh Davy took them to 142 at the end of the innings.
Denly was the pick of the bowlers for Kent removing both the Somerset openers in Banton and Will Smead alongside Tom Lammonby.
Earlier in the evening, after winning the toss, Somerset invited Kent to bat first and even as the team kept on losing wickets regularly, Jordan Cox with his patient approach but very fiery innings of unbeaten 58 off just 28 balls took the Spitfires to 167-7 from their 20 overs.
With this loss, Somerset have now lost four of their five Blast finals with the lone victory coming in their first-ever final appearance in 2005.