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Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond urges players to focus on basics as they look to kick-start this season’s County Championship Division 1 survival push with away game against Worcestershire

05:00, 21 August 2024

updated: 13:00, 21 August 2024

Captain Daniel Bell-Drummond has urged Kent’s players to focus on doing the basics as they aim to kick-start their County Championship survival bid.

Division 1 basement boys Kent will return to red-ball action at fellow strugglers Worcestershire from tomorrow.

Daniel Bell-Drummond - wants Kent to focus on doing the basics well as they prepare to start their season run-in and County Championship survival bid. Picture: Barry Goodwin
Daniel Bell-Drummond - wants Kent to focus on doing the basics well as they prepare to start their season run-in and County Championship survival bid. Picture: Barry Goodwin

It’s been a poor summer for Matt Walker’s side across all formats but a strong season run-in could maintain their top-flight status.

Bell-Drummond said: “At the start of the season, you can definitely set out, knowing roughly what you want points-wise from each game.

“But for the minute, we haven’t earned that kind of right.

“We have won one game all year so we need to focus on doing the basics well, get in the fight and really try to take it to the opposition.

“We’ll just try to take it session by session - win each session - win days of cricket and, hopefully, that’ll earn us victories. We’re just looking at each day at a time.

Bell-Drummond: It’s a good grounding

“At the end of the day, it’s getting quite desperate for us but we just need to make sure that we do the basics well first.

“Then, hopefully, we’ll be able to earn ourselves wins.”

Kent sit 25 points behind Worcestershire and 30 points from safety. The game at New Road is followed by a trip to third-bottom Warwickshire seven days later.

“We’re in a very tough position in the table,” admitted Bell-Drummond. “We’re way off Worcestershire and Warwickshire, and we’re really in need of results. We will be pushing to get them.

“It’s always difficult in Division 1, we knew that coming into the season, but we’re trying to be as optimistic as possible and we’re backing ourselves to make something of the last five games.

Sam Billings - skippered Oval Invincibles to win The Hundred competition for a second year in a row despite getting a golden duck in the final on Sunday. Picture: Keith Gillard
Sam Billings - skippered Oval Invincibles to win The Hundred competition for a second year in a row despite getting a golden duck in the final on Sunday. Picture: Keith Gillard

“We have got to stay positive and try to get some good results.”

Fighting for Division 1 survival at the business end of the season has become a common theme for Kent in recent campaigns.

Bell-Drummond, 31, noted: “I guess we are a bit further off than we have been previously.

“But at the end of the day, we have got to look forward now. We have got some winnable games coming up with games against a few teams around us.

“We have to take the confidence some of the guys got from the 50-over cup - some people bowled nicely, and there were some runs for Jack Leaning and Harry Finch, as well - and, hopefully, we can take that forward.”

Worcestershire, like Kent, have only one County Championship Division 1 victory this summer.

But Bell-Drummond said: “Worcestershire are, obviously, a good team.

“They’re down towards the bottom-end of the table with us. It’s a game that we’re really targeting.

“I don’t have a clue what the wicket will be like but, when we get there, we will make our plans accordingly and figure out the right team to go with.

“It’s a game we have to be targeting to get as many points out of as possible but they’ll be thinking the same about facing us.

“Hopefully, it will make for some good attacking cricket.”

While Bell-Drummond has been away at The Hundred competition with London Spirit, he has kept a close eye on how Spitfires did in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup, as they finished third-bottom in Group A with three wins from eight 50-over matches.

Bell-Drummond explained: “I watched from afar and, as I should be, I was keeping in contact with the guys. I saw a lot of promising signs.

“It was a tournament we were sort of targeting, as well, so it was unfortunate that we couldn’t qualify (for the knock-out stages) but there were lots of really good signs.

“We have some good youngsters coming through, and Jaydn Denly and Ekansh Singh tasted a bit more first-team cricket.

“It was great to see the bowlers do really well - Grant Stewart and Charlie Stobo especially with bat and ball had very good tournaments - along with Jack Leaning.

“There were some good signs there. Hopefully, we can build on that.”

Kent Spitfires T20 Blast skipper Sam Billings led Oval Invincibles to win The Hundred competition for the second year in a row at Lord’s on Sunday.

Billings, who was out for a golden duck, saw his team restrict Southern Brave to 130-7 after they had posted 147-9.

Kent team-mate Tawanda Muyeye was also involved in Invincibles’ squad while Kent head coach Walker was again part of the coaching staff.

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