Kent Spitfires (287-8) beat Essex Eagles (227 all out) by 60 runs in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup at Canterbury

Jack Leaning-inspired Kent Spitfires comfortably beat Essex Eagles in Canterbury on Sunday to keep alive their chances of qualifying for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup knockout stages.

He blasted a fine unbeaten century and also got among the wickets in a 60-run success.

“We, obviously, ended up with a really good score in the end,” Leaning said.

“We probably thought it was more towards a 300 pitch, we thought it was slightly better than the pitch on Thursday. So, when we lost those wickets in the middle, it was quite key one of us took stock and was there towards the end.

“We’ve probably fallen down in the last couple of games where we’ve missed out towards the back-end. But obviously, today was my day and I managed to get hold of a few at the end to get us to a really good score.

“Towards the back-end of the second innings, it started to spin quite a bit. We’ve got a nice formula for how we want to play our 50-over cricket and it’s worked again.”

On the difference between the two teams, fit-again captain Joe Denly said: “Jack Leaning, I think, springs to mind.

“We entered the back-end of our innings, having lost a bit of momentum. We thought 280-plus was a minimum on that wicket.

“He was sensational, wasn’t he? He guided that tail all the way through to the end and played probably one of the best knocks he’s ever played.

“To strike it like that, that was really phenomenal. I think it’s been building.

“He’s been in a really good place with his batting - just hasn’t kicked on - but thankfully, he was able to today.

“He got us to a really competitive score and I think the spinners especially were fantastic and our fielding was a real improvement on the last game.”

Kent made three changes - which saw an uncle-nephew duo play