Tawanda Muyeye scorches Essex with scintillating maiden hundred

Tawanda Muyeye cemented himself as the leading run-scorer in the Men's Vitality Blast 2025 with a jaw-dropping maiden T20 century as Kent Spitfires tore rivals Essex apart.

Muyeye became Kent's eighth T20 hundred-maker, with the club's joint-most sixes in an innings as he hoisted his bat on a stunning 58-ball 100.

He and opening partner Daniel Bell-Drummond are the only two players to reach three figures in this year's competition, with Muyeye's 362 runs leading the charts.

Matt Parkinson's first T20 five-wicket haul pulled the rug out under Essex's doomed chase of 214 as they were bowled out for 172, despite Dean Elgar's patient 50 and Simon Harmer's late pyrotechnics in scoring 55.

Essex wanted to chase, and started strongly with the ball with three tight overs before Muyeye swung Harmer for two sixes in a row to begin his assault on Chelmsford. He put on 71 with Bell-Drummond for the first wicket, 76 with Joe Denly and 43 with captain Sam Billings - all got starts, but there was only one star of the show.

There is no secret that Muyeye is one of the most aesthetically pleasing batters on the circuit. His quick hands, paired with a long backswing, caught the eye, but it was the power that had the hosts scrambling.

He fired seven sixes in total into the balmy sky, equalling the record for Kent, plus six hammered fours.

Muyeye quickly moved to the top of the Blast run-scoring charts for this season, and made a play to stay there for the rest of the campaign, with a half-century ticked off in 32 balls and his ton in 58.

In doing so he joined an esteemed and exclusive list of Kent T20 centurions - Denly, Bell-Drummond, Billings, Zak Crawley, Azhar Mahmood, Sam Northeast, and Andrew Symonds being the other inductees.

He might have controlled a full toss straight to long-off next ball, but the damage was done. Kent reached 219, with Shane Snater, Harmer and Luc Benkenstein picking up a wicket each, although Mohammad Amir was the only bowler to go at under sevens.

A bumper Friday night crowd resorted to gallows humour when Elgar finally found the boundary with the 20th ball of the innings, having already seen Tom Rogers skip one past Michael Pepper.

Things heated up later in the third over when Jordan Cox swung and missed. Wicketkeeper Billings threw the ball at the stumps, missed and hit his former team-mate. Cox responded by kicking the ball away and verbals were exchanged at close quarters.

Cox punted the following delivery down the ground for four, but the spat ended when Billings gave Cox a send-off after skying to long-on.

Parkinson, who had dismissed Cox, then bowled Paul Walter with legspinning perfection with the next ball, but squandered a hat-trick with a leg-side wide.

Parkinson added a third when Benkenstein stuck one straight up and another as Matt Critchley found the deep point fielder.

Elgar had quietly amassed his 16th T20 fifty, but he was bowled by another Parkinson beauty, the spinner ending up with 5 for 23. Charlie Allison, Noah Thain, Shane Snater and Harmer also fell - with Joey Evison taking two in two at one point.

While Essex remain the sole winless side in either group, Harmer entertained the crowd with seven sixes once the match was mathematically lost - he smacked 55 in 21 balls.