Royal London One-Day Cup

Well they do say it's the low targets that are the most difficult to chase down. (They say many things, and I don't pretend to understand all of them). If Kent could bat the way they did on Friday, and bowl & field the way they did today, but do both on the same day - our opponents would be just as petrified of us as Sam Billings insists his IPL team-mates are of the England one-day side.

Back in the real world, Kent fans are accustomed to compiling spreadsheets and matrices as early as the first week in May, as we try to work out whether or not Kent retain a theoretical chance of progressing in a particular tournament. It looks as though if we win our four remaining matches we'll definitely end up somewhere in the top five, along with Somerset, Sussex, Essex and Hampshire. Some outcomes would put us in the top three, as is necessary to proceed, but we can't influence that.

I think we want Somerset to beat Hampshire on Wednesday. That would give Somerset the same number of points as Kent would have if Kent won all of their remaining games, but Somerset would still have three games left to play. Realistically, we're not going to be duking it out with Somerset for a qualifying slot, so they might as well deprive a more likely rival of ours of 2 points. Hampshire's maximum possible points would then be the same as Kent's, and we'd probably end up ahead on Net Run-Rate, so we'd be in the top four and needing to finish ahead of either Essex or Sussex to qualify.

So in the other relevant match on Wednesday (apart from Kent beating Gloucestershire, of course), it's probably best if Essex beat Sussex. They're notionally neck-and-neck on games and wins (after Essex's implied loss to Kent a week later), but Sussex's no-result could end up being as good as a win. Anyway see how we're looking after Wednesday's games when the situation should be much simpler, one way or the other.

Edit: I don't suppose anyone is looking to me for analysis as to which results would assist Kent on Wednesday. But just in case anyone read my last paragraph above, and deemed it stupid - I agree.

Assuming Somerset will qualify then of course Kent only need to finish above one of Sussex and Essex, and as things stand it'll be easier to finish above Essex. So we want Somerset to beat Hampshire, and Sussex to beat Essex. Then, as long as Kent win all their remaining games, I reckon we'll probably qualify as the worst case will be that we're level on points with Hampshire and Essex, and by doing all this winning we should beat both teams on NRR.

Our win on Sunday has prompted another robotic tweet of congratulation from Allan Donald. These are turning out to be an unexpected source of entertainment for connoisseurs of token Twitter action.

"Great win by @kentcricket beating @middlesex_CCC by 46 runs. Well done men fantastic bounce back."

We feel your pain.