Sussex Pacers Tear Through Kent With Mills Paying Tribute to Hunt

Sussex’s left-arm attack tore through Kent in the T20 Blast, with Tymal Mills leading the praise for Jayden Hunt after a dominant bowling display.

Hunt had a hand in the first six wickets to fall as Kent were restricted to 133 for 8 in their 20 overs. And his bowling figures of 3 for 9 were the third most economical by a Sussex bowler after Robin Martin-Jenkins and current bowling coach James Kirtley, who both achieved their figures against Hampshire in 2004, only the second year of the competition.

Bottom line: Mills singled out Hunt for praise after Sussex’s left-arm bowling group ran riot against Kent in the T20 Blast, underlining the impact of Sussex’s pace depth.

"It couldn't have gone any better for me than it did today. It hasn't really sunk in yet. It's a bit surreal. I just went out there and bowled," Hunt said. "I'm so happy with how it went today and we won the match too, which is the important thing. The new ball was moving early and that suits my game. I stuck to my skills, stuck to the basics. It paid off massively.

"It was only my second T20 game," he added. "I had a few extras against me when I bowled on Friday. I cut that out today. But I still took some confidence from taking a couple of wickets in that game against Leicestershire. It was so important to have the skipper Tymal Mills giving me some advice through out the game."

This was a disappointing result for the Spitfires, who had won three out of four matches and had beaten Sussex by seven wickets at Canterbury two weeks earlier. The Sharks had also been beaten in their previous four fixtures.

Kent lost their seventh wicket at 106 and for the first time Hunt had nothing to do with it, Hughes taking the catch at long-off from Mills' bowling to dismiss Denly off the last ball of the 17th over.

Denly's 34-ball 42, with one four and two sixes, was a fine innings in the circumstances and some late blows by Dudgeon gave the Kent innings something close to respectability.