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Kent Spitfires beat Notts Outlaws by five wickets in Royal London One-Day Cup Group B clash at Trent Bridge

Sam Billings scored a stunning hundred and Matt Coles took a hat-trick as Kent Spitfires remained in the race for the Royal London One-Day Cup quarter-finals in sensational fashion at Trent Bridge on Monday.

Kent beat the previously unbeaten Notts Outlaws by five wickets, and with eight balls to spare, after chasing down the Group B leaders 335 all-out.

It was a record-breaking score by the Spitfires in the format at the venue beating the 317-8 scored in 2002.

Sam Billings scored a stunning hundred
Sam Billings scored a stunning hundred

Billings led the incredible run-chase, scoring an unbeaten 118, his third one-day hundred, off 89 balls. His innings included 12 fours and three sixes.

Alex Blake was the other unbeaten batsman, finishing the game in style with a straight six that took him to 50 off 34 balls.

Blake and Billings added 133 together to see their side home,

Earlier, Daniel Bell-Drummond (73) and Fabian Cowdrey (51) steadied the ship after the earlier loss of Joe Denly (4) and captain Sam Northeast (10).

While Billings starred with the bat, Coles did the same with the ball as Notts lost six wickets for just four runs in the space 10 balls at the end of their innings.

Matt Coles took a hat-trick Picture: Barry Goodwin
Matt Coles took a hat-trick Picture: Barry Goodwin

Coles (3-54) removed Aussie all-rounder Dan Christian (59) and captain James Taylor (109) with the final two balls of the 48th over.

Mitch Claydon (4-66) completed a team hat-trick by having Steven Mullaney caught by Bell-Drummond for 0 before bowling Brett Hutton for a duck as Kent took four wickets in five balls.

Claydon had earlier got rid of opener Alex Hales (81).

Coles completed his hat-trick by removing Luke Fletcher's leg-stump to become the third Kent seamer to have achieved the feat in limited overs cricket.

Richard Ellison against Hampshire in 1983 and Martin McCague against Glamorgan in 1992 are the others.

The result sees the Spitfires move up to fourth on net run rate ahead of Wednesday's final group game against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

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