The Canterbury club finished bottom of Group A with a single win from their eight matches. Ollie Robinson is looking forward to the opportunity to bounce back, starting in the T20 Blast
The bat-hurling rage that greeted Kent’s early exit from the Royal London Cup had given way to something more reflective by the time the Spitfires subsided to an eight-wicket defeat to Gloucestershire on Thursday (August 12).
“It’s been the same story all along in this competition,” admitted Ollie Robinson. “We just haven't really fired."
The wicketkeeper-batsman and sometimes captain hit his highest List A score of 75 against Gloucestershire, but his personal satisfaction was tempered by the team's last-place finish. Kent won just one of their eight games and was only really competitive in two others, the last-over defeat at Worcester and the abandoned game against Sussex at Hove.
The abject home loss to Hampshire that confirmed their elimination prompted more than one batsman to channel his rage with some old-fashioned bat throwing in the dressing room.
“It’s been a strange one,” said Robinson. “I’ve felt good all the time without really getting anything to show for it. It was nice to get 70 but I should have done what [Chris] Dent did when everyone batted around him and he got a hundred. They showed us how to bat and that was to get partnerships together and build off each other.”
Kent lost 11 players to The Hundred, but Robinson wouldn’t use that as an excuse and believes they should be flattered so many of their players are in demand.
“I think it’s good for Kent that we’re getting that recognition. It shows how far the boys have come in white-ball cricket. I know it’s obviously not ideal for the majority of Kent fans because they lose players but we haven’t been good enough.
"But some boys have taken that opportunity and we’re going to be stronger next year and hopefully, we’ll be challenging in a lot more games.”
Kent supporters are less than thrilled that they now face a fortnight without any cricket in what used to be the busiest month of the season, but Robinson feels the rest may work in their favour, ahead of their Vitality Blast quarter-final with the Birmingham Bears at Canterbury, which is a 4,000 sell-out.
Chris Dent's century rounded off Kent woeful campaign and sent Gloucestershire through
“The schedule’s pretty hectic so a bit of time off isn’t the worst thing but again we’ve still got to keep on top of it,” he said. “We’ve got probably one of our biggest games of the year coming up so it’s important not to peak too early.
“As much as it’s a physical game it’s a mental game. It’s not like we’re going to be sitting down for two weeks. We’re training every other day and it’s a great opportunity to work on what we’ve not quite got right in this competition. We can try to put that to bed, kick on for the quarter-final and hopefully set us up for four wins in the Championship to give us some momentum going into next year and put a gloss on a season that hasn’t really gone our way.”
“We’re really excited [about the T20 quarter-final] and hopefully, we’ll put in a big performance.
"It’s a big goal to get to finals day and push for a trophy because I think we’re due some silverware. I don’t see why we can’t do it this year.”
Posted by Richard Holmes on 13/08/2021 at 13:26
Delusional comments in line with those of Mr Billings. To argue it is good for players to recognised by the Hundred immediately places as an aspiration above playing for your county. So on what basis would you position; - representing a franchise above your contracted professional employer - both the county brand and product as inferior to the Kent Membership I have little doubt both the players who « gravitated » to the Hundred and indeed those replacing benefitted professionally and financially but to what end. Only Billings, Klassen & latterly Milnes have featured, Blake has been an afterthought, Cox hasn’t played, Bell Drummond, Denly & Leaning were dropped or disappeared while Qais and Milne are already part of the Global T20 cricketing circus while Crawley headed for the Test arena. I begrudge no one their enjoyment of cricket be it the Hundred but at every point Kent County Cricket Club, it’s membership and its infrastructure has been diminished. There is only so far you can cannibalise your core product until you suddenly realise there is actually nothing left
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