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Cricket

Veteran Grant Flower is hoping his Friends Provident Trophy final display can earn him a new contract with Essex.

Flower, 37, intends to follow the career path of older brother Andy, who is England's batting coach, but not before extending his playing days as long as possible.

"I am not sure how much longer I will play for, it depends on whether I get a new contract," Flower said.

"I am getting onto the level four coaching course this winter, I am coming to the end of my career, so we will just see what happens," he added.

Flower struck a man-of-the-match 70 not out to down off-colour Kent by five wickets on Saturday, an innings of tip and run which ran his opponents ragged.

"I am not a big, strong hitter of the ball so I have to find other ways of manipulating it," he said. "It is a big part of my game, to rotate the strike and run as hard as I can, so hitting a few boundary balls was a bonus.

"As I got in I thought that if I stayed until the end we would have a good chance of winning."

Kent captin Robert Key was left fuming by his team's ineptitude with the bat, as experienced operators like Justin Kemp, Darren Stevens and Azhar Mahmood succumbed cheaply, playing ambitious strokes.

"All the build up, you turn up and bat like that," said Key, whose mood was not improved when he was chosen for a random post-play drugs test.

"We were just brainless weren't we? The shots we played. We just weren't very smart, to be honest."