Pepper, Walter star in Essex nine-wicket win against Kent

At Canterbury on Friday, Essex defeated the Kent Spitfires by nine wickets to win their first Vitality Blast match of the season. With Charlie Bennett and Wiaan Mulder scoring 3 for 25 and 3 for 26, respectively, the visitors destroyed Kent's top order while restricting Kent to 129 for 9 in 20 overs. With 34 points, Dian Forrester led Kent in scoring. Michael Pepper then hit 64, including three sixes and six fours, and Paul Walter an unbeaten 42 as Essex chased down the target with 6.2 overs to spare. Essex made the decisive decision to bowl. They took the prize wicket of Tawanda Muyeye for one in the second over, when he pulled Bennett to Luc Benkenstein at deep backward square and Zak Crawley went in the next over for seven, driving Shane Snater straight to Mulder. Sam Billings went for eight in the fourth, ramping Zaman Akhter straight to Bennett and when Daniel Bell-Drummond charged down the wicket to Mulder he was caught behind for 13 Kent were 30 for 4 - and there were still two balls left of the powerplay. Joe Denly briefly got the crowd going when he pulled Mulder for six, but Mulder bowled him two balls later for 14. Simon Harmer's 12th over was a maiden and scoring was painfully slow, until the 15th, which went for 14. However, Tom Rogers only made seven before lofting Mulder to Luc Benkenstein, and Jake Lintott skied Bennett to Pepper for 18. Forrester hit Bennett to Paul Walter at short fine leg. Matt Milnes hit a couple of fours in the 19th and Fred Klaassen then heaved Snater for a six, only to get caught by Walter off the next ball for eight. Kent were in the game for a good three overs before Walter and Pepper got their eyes on the target, which appeared to be insignificant. On the rare occasions when they played false shots the ball never landed near a fielder: Pepper was on 24 when he miscued Rogers, but none of the three Kent fielders converging on the ball could reel in the catch and Muyeye injured his arm in the process. Any lingering doubts about the outcome vanished when Pepper hit Matt Parkinson for four through extra cover to reach 50. Despite Rogers getting Pepper caught behind trying a ramp, Billings dropped Charlie Allison when he gloved the next ball. Allison used the reprieve to hit the winning runs, pulling Klaassen for four through cow corner, handing the Spitfires their first defeat of the season. Essex now holds onto the Mike Denness Shield, which is contested annually by these two teams across all formats.