Kent Spitfires captain Joe Denly says winning Royal London One-Day Cup is very special

Joe Denly might be a reluctant Kent Spitfires captain but he’s a winning one now - after guiding the county to victory in the Royal London One-Day Cup.

Denly returned from injury during the group stages to guide Kent to the knock-out stages and his calm presence and clear thinking has been a key component of Spitfires’ stunning turnaround in form.

It culminated in Kent claiming a deserved 21-run win over Lancashire in Saturday’s final at Trent Bridge and Denly certainly enjoyed the experience.

“It’s never been at the top of my list of things to do but I’ve certainly enjoyed it this year with our big boys being away at The Hundred,” admitted Denly.

“With experience and the amount of cricket that I’ve played it does help. I hope the lads enjoyed playing under my captaincy.

“As a captain I try and remain as calm as I can and hopefully that rubs off on the bowlers and takes a bit of pressure off them. It seems to have worked.

“I’ve actually been quite excited, the runs of games we’ve been on and been involved in (meant) I came into this fairly confident. Obviously, there were a few nerves there but I try to hide them as much as I can.

“It’s very special. A lot of emotions are going on at the minute, to get over the line in a final is awesome.

“I’m very proud, the over-riding emotion is a proud one of the group of players that we have together, playing pretty much knockout cricket for the back-end of the competition and getting through (to win it) is very special.

“You could probably go through our whole team and at one point one of them would have contributed.”

Denly hit 79 in just 68 balls, hitting eight fours and a six, but claimed he never felt at ease during his innings.

As skipper, however, it was pleasing that he was