Kent kept their title hopes alive with one of the greatest wins in their history at Grace Road. Challenged to score 401 off 84 overs to beat Leicestershire in their CricInfo Championship clash, they did it by three wickets off the last ball of the game.

Former Leicestershire wicket-keeper Paul Nixon was the hero, hitting l6 runs off the final over and a four off the last ball.

It was bowled by Darren Maddy, who had earlier been celebrating his first century of the season in Leicestershire's second innings total of 365 for seven declared.

Home captain Vince Wells batted on for 10 overs on the final morning with Leicestershire adding 60 runs before setting Kent what looked an unlikely target.

Only once before have Kent scored more than 400 to win a game when batting fourth. That was back in 1934 when they totalled 416 to beat Middlesex.

So a draw looked the most likely outcome – until Andrew Symonds and Ed Smith transformed the game with a third-wicket stand of 235 in 47 overs.

Symonds smashed 125 off 134 balls with 17 fours and a six, and Smith made 107 off 183 balls with 10 fours. At tea Kent still had a lot to do needing 185 off 30 overs. And when Symonds, Smith and Matthew Walker were all dismissed in an eight-over spell for a total of 30 runs, their hopes of winning looked to have gone.

But they continued to plug away against a tiring home attack, and in the end it all came down to the last over from which 14 were needed. Nixon took two runs off each of the first four balls and then clubbed the final two deliveries to the boundary

It was a sensational finale to a match in which a total of 1,583 runs were scored and seven different players made centuries.

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