Canterbury, Aug 26: The Indians beat Kent by five runs in a thrilling last over finish to register their second consecutive victory on the tour. The scheduled one-dayer was reduced to a Twenty20 game as rain delayed the start of play at the St. Lawrence Ground here.

Earlier, Kent won the toss and put India in to bat. Slamming 78 off 53 deliveries, Virat Kohli once again led the charge against the opposition bowlers. With two partnerships of 49 and 69 runs with Rahul Dravid and Rohit Sharma respectively, he helped India post a competitive target on the board. Unlike at Hove, Rohit Sharma played a more sedate innings scoring 30 off 28 balls while Kohli dominated the show. Kohli’s vibrant innings ended in an unfortunate run-out while responding to Suresh Raina’s call for a second run prompted by a fumble in the field. After MS Dhoni and Raina both followed him back to the dressing room in quick succession, R Ashwin added 23* off 12 balls to help India finish with 164 runs off their allotted 20 overs.

Chasing 165 to win, Kent opener Joe Denly’s century went in vain for want of support from the other end. Denly hammered 100 off just 68 deliveries to keep the hosts in the game till the last over. His run in the middle was ended as RP Singh bowled him in the penultimate over of the match. With Denly back in the pavilion, and Kent needing eight runs of the final over, Munaf Patel bowled a tight last over. Conceding only two runs in the final over he effected a run-out as a desperate Sam Northeast tried to steal in a single. Munaf then bowled Darren Stevens off the last ball with the hosts still needing six runs for victory.

With one more practice match to be played against the Leics at Leicester, and a T20I before the ODIs begin, the Indians seemed to be finding some elusive form.

Brief Scores: Indians164/6 in 20 overs (V Kohli 78, RG Sharma 30, R Ashwin 23, JC Tredwell 2/18) beat Kent 159/5 in 20 overs (JL Denly 100, RG Sharma 2/36, MM Patel 1/22) by 5 runs