Nash injury mars Kent triumph
Dwayne Smith and Chris Nash collide, causing a 15-minute delay and leaving the latter with a suspected broken leg
A freak fielding injury left Sussex batsman Chris Nash nursing a suspected broken leg and took the edge off Kent's five-wicket Twenty20 Cup win at Canterbury.
Chasing a modest target of 133 at an asking rate of fewer than seven an over, Kent cantered to their third successive South Division qualifying win with three overs to spare and inflict a third defeat on the Sharks.
Yet home joy was diminished by Nash's injury, which led to a 15-minute hold-up in play while he was taken to hospital by ambulance.
In trying to take a catch at long-leg off Kent's match-winner, Geraint Jones, Nash clashed with team-mate Dwayne Smith as the duo converged on the ball.
Smith caught the ball but, seeing the boundary ropes and the oncoming Nash out the corner of his eye, tossed the ball up hoping to catch it again. However, the fielders collided and Nash came off the worse.
After the delay Jones went on to feature in a fourth-wicket stand worth 73 in eight overs with Martin van Jaarsveld, who made 39, which all but made sure of Kent's win despite van Jaarsveld's demise to James Kirtley from a top-edged pull.
Jones, who hit five fours in his 39-ball 56 to go with three catches earlier in the day, clattered the third off his sixes off Smith to level the scores, only to edge the next ball to the keeper. Kirtley's leg-side wide from the next delivery confirmed Kent’s win.
Geraint Jones swings to leg on the way to a rapid 56 as Kent stormed to a five-wicket win over Sussex at Canterbury
After a faltering start the Sussex innings never really gathered momentum despite electing to bat first in near ideal conditions.
They enjoyed a huge early let-off as the influential Murray Goodwin, on two, was caught at cover off a Robbie Joseph no-ball.
Joseph made amends by having Nash caught at mid-on courtesy of a miscued pull in his next over, and the experiment to bat Robin Martin-Jenkins at number three misfired when he ran himself out for one going for a single to point.
Smith, aiming to force an Azhar Mahmood off-cutter off the back foot, was trapped leg before without scoring, and it got worse three balls later when Ed Joyce edged an attempted steer to third man.
Goodwin cashed in on his let-off by going on to crack six fours in his 32 before he edged an attempted slash off Joseph to Jones and, at 55 for five, Sussex were deep in trouble.
They lost Rory Hamilton-Brown when he sliced an attempted drive off Simon Cook to third man, but former Kent favourite Yasir Arafat marched in to help skipper Michael Yardy add 58 in eight overs to at least give the visitors' total an air of respectability.
Arafat top-scored with 43 from 34 balls before he was last man out, edging an audacious leg-side flick from way outside off stump to the keeper, leaving Yardy unbeaten with 26.
