The Kent Spitfires lost out in a tight finish at the St Lawrence ground on Friday night with India edging home the T20 game by just five runs.

Having been set 165 to win at Canterbury, the Spitfires came up just short in their pursuit of India’s challenging title with Joe Denly man of the match scoring a century for the home side.

In what turned out to have been a delayed start due to persistant rain in the Canterbury area, the 7,000 capacity crowd were treated to a great game that will live long in the memory.

With the game scheduled to start at 2:30pm and be a 50 over per side game, fans had to be patient with the rain forcing the umpires to inspect at regular intervals with the outfield sodden.

When play finally got underway at 7:30pm, it had been decided that we would be watching a Twenty 20 game instead with Kent having won the toss and electing to bowl first.

India opened up with former Kent overseas signing Rahul Darvid and Parthiv Patel with loan signing David Balcombe making early inroads having Patel caught behind for just one.

The visitors then set about laying a platform for a decent score with Dravid and Virat Kohli placing the ball nicely between the Kent fielders.

Kohli went on to score a majestic 78 before being run out attempting a risky second run with Rohit Sharma chipping in with a well executed 30.

Bowling under pressure, the Spitfires bowling attack more than held their own and did well to restrict India to just 164 for 6 off their 20 overs.

Kent’s task of chasing the challenging score was dented early on with Daniel Bell-Drummond clean bowled by RP Singh, just a ball after having spanked the seamer into the stands for six.

A 60 run partnership between Denly and Martin van Jaarsveld then saw Kent into a strong position with the former showing all the strokes in the book as he showed no regard for the bowling attack.

In the end, Denly departed staright after recording his 68 ball century which included eight fours and two mammoth sixes with Kent needing just nine more runs to win.

It was perfect at the death bowling from Munaf Patel that won the game for India though with Sam Northeast run out in the last over having been unable to get the seamer away and with Kent needing six off the final ball of the game Stevens was bowled by Patel taking an almighty heave at the ball.

So Kent may well have fallen five runs short, but they showed enough grit and determination to give all Kent fans optimism for the future against a well drilled Indian side.

Kent won the toss and elected to bowl.

Umpires: Lloyds, B V Taylor.

Kent: Denly, Bell-Drummond, van Jaarsveld (C), Stevens, Northeast, Jones (W), Ball, Tredwell, Coles, Balcombe, Riley.

India: P Patel, Dravid, Kohli, Rohit Sharma, Raina, Dhoni (C/W), A Mishra, Ashwin, Singh, M Patel, Kumar.

Result: India 164 for 6 (20 overs), Kent 159 for 5 (20 overs). India won by 5 runs