Not good enough on the night

Skipper Sam Billings hopes Saturday’s defeat to Somerset was just a blip as the Spitfires look to return to winning ways in the T20 Blast.

Tom Banton opened with exactly 100 from 52 balls as the hosts posted 206-8 after winning the toss at Taunton. He and third wicket partner Tom Abell (63) added 102 to take the game away from Kent.

Daniel Bell-Drummond hit 36 and Zak Crawley 35 in reply before Kent were bowled out for 151 in 18.4 overs, with Craig Overton taking 3-32 after removing Bell-Drummond, Billings and Mohammad Nabi in the same over.

Billings, making his first T20 appearance of the season, said: “Somerset outplayed us in every department.

“You are not going to go through an entire tournament playing brilliant cricket and, hopefully, this is a one-off. “Momentum plays such an important part in T20 cricket and I’m sure this is just a blip. We are still a good side.

“We came up against a young player in outstanding form and, fair play to Tom Banton, he took the game away from us.

“It was difficult to know where to put the ball when he and Tom Abell were going well.

“It’s disappointing, but we’ll dust ourselves down over the next couple of days and then come back again. We’re still in a good position in the group.” It marked their second defeat in a row on the back of last Wednesday’s five-wicket loss to Gloucestershire at Bristol. The visitors could only manage 125-8 after losing the toss, with Bell-Drummond top scoring on 62. Gloucestershire reached 131-5 with seven balls to spare, with Jack Taylor (19 not out) and Benny Howell (25 not out) finishing the job.

Kent assistant coach Allan Donald said: “No complaints. We knew what to expect from conditions and were not good enough. When you come to Bristol you expect a used pitch, which suits their bowling attack. They take pace off the ball for pretty much 20 overs and are very good at it.

“We needed to scramble to around 140. That would have been a challenge for Gloucestershire.

“Daniel Bell-Drummond showed that if you stuck around and applied yourself it was possible to rotate the strike. We lost too many wickets too frequently.”