Kent Spitfires captain Rob Key feels there are some positives to take after his side were knocked out of this year’s Twenty 20 Cup.

The Spitfires succumbed to a 23 run defeat to the Essex Eagles at Canterbury on Friday night, ruling out any chance of them being able to make it through to the Quarter Final stage of the competition.

With a game still to play in the competition, the Spitfires have won just three of their nine games, with the first washed out. That means the best they can hope for is finishing fourth in the group with the Eagles now set to challenge for a place in the last eight.

Having seen his side win the toss and restrict the Eagles to 149 for 5 in their 20 overs, Key and the Spitfires batting line up could only muster 126 for 9 in reply and the Kent skipper admitted his side hadn’t been good enough on the day:

“I probably made the wrong decision not batting first when we won the toss on a used pitch. Sometimes it skids on and it’s best to bat under lights, but that wasn’t to be.”

“We did well to keep them down to 150 considering that was the pitch Middlesex scored 200 on, but we just didn’t get going at all really. We needed to be 50 odd after the first six overs and unfortunately we were a bit too slow and never really got any momentum from there.”

“We were then always chasing the game on a pitch that was always going to get tougher to score on.”

The Spitfires cause wasn’t helped by two run outs, with Sam Northeast and Darren Stevens sent back to the pavillion in quick succession with Key telling KSN how the side needed to learn from those kind of mistakes:

“It was ordinary cricket really and we have been so hot and cold in this competition, it’s a real shame. It was another day where you walk off thinking if only we’d been a bit braver with bat and had given it a bit more of a crack.”

“You watch the way (Matt) Prior and these people are playing and you walk off thinking why didn’t I try to hit the ball for six, rather than hang in there for a bit and get out.”

“We’ve got a bit to do in Twenty 20, but there’s some encouraging signs, although it’s been a struggle and tough year in this form of the game. It’s not a problem if you put it right in years to come and I’d like to think there are enough positives coming out of the side.”

“I think we need to get to grips with Twenty 20 and I think the game has changed since 2007, even in the last couple of years. You see the people now that are really making the headlines, like Glenn Maxwell.”

“Someone will come in and try and hit every ball for four or six from pretty much the word go. As for spinners, people are running down and smacking them. The best players like Chris Gayle are just stand and deliver and I think that’s something we’ve got to find.”

“I don’t think it’s a coaching thing, it’s just getting up to speed with modern day cricket. It’s something that players even like myself have to start evolving with Twenty 20.”

“When we were very good at it, we did it our way, but the game has got ahead of us a little bit and this year we didn’t go for the Twenty 20 overseas players, where they can make the difference, but as I say, it doesn’t matter as long as we learn from it.”

One of the biggest disappointments of the campaign for Kent’s fans is that they haven’t really seen the best of all-rounder Azhar Mahmood and Key was open when he admitted the former Pakistan international hadn’t been on top form:

“It’s been tough for Azhar in a way as he got injured coming into it and last year he played a bit of Championship cricket, he played a few one dayers, so he came in to that tournament in form and the problem in this format is that if you get behind the eight ball, you really struggle and he was a bit undercooked, that’s probably the best way you can describe it.”

“By the end, he began to find a bit more form. It’s not ideal as when you’ve got a few youngsters in there, you need your main players to fire and we didn’t, that’s the truth.”

One of the biggest disappointments for Key was the fact that the side had performed so well at The Oval and hadn’t given themselves a chance of making it to the Quarter Finals at Uxbridge:

“When you play in front of 15,000 people and have a good game against Surrey and put out a decent performance, you’re on a massive high and then you don’t really turn up and you’re back on a low again.”

“That’s always the most disappointing thing in county cricket for me as you work really hard for a win and then you’ve got another game before you know it and you don’t get chance to enjoy what you’ve done in front of an unbelievable atmosphere at The Oval.”

“Doing well there is one of the most enjoyable experiences as a cricketer. They are the days you will look back on fondly.”

Key will sit down with coach Jimmy Adams at the end of the T20 campaign to analyse where they went well and what they can improve on, but the Kent skipper was keen not to be too critical of his young side:

“I think we’ve done alright with the ball, I don’t think we’ve ever hurt anyone with the bat. If we’ve won games it’s been an outstanding bowling performance.”

“The first game we bowled really well and got off to a good start against Surrey at Beckenham and that was probably the only time we really put in a really good performance with the bat and that’s something we’ve got to look at.”

“We need to look at explosive starts and explosive players. The best players in Twenty 20 are striking the ball at 150 runs per hundred balls, the good players are about 120 and probably all of our players are below 120.”

“The odd game people have had a day out and done well. Throughout, it doesn’t matter the runs you’ve got or your average, it’s about your strike rate otherwise you’re relying on your bowling too much.”

For Key, there were positives to take from the campaign, with his senior bowler Mark Davies earning the most praise:

“I think all but one game where Matt Prior, who has smacked everyone around, I think Davies has shown how good he is. He’s played a lot of cricket, but probably not much Twenty 20 and he’s shown Durham what they’ve missed.”

“He’s probably been one of the most consistant performers in the Twenty 20 this year. I think of the young guys, Sam Northeast has had a couple of good knocks, Sam Billings has continued to show that he has got a bit to learn, but that he has a future in the game and could go a long way, Adam Ball and Adam Riley and Alex Blake at The Oval too have shown they can do it.”

“We’ve probably got seven, eight, maybe nine young players that you could see keeping Kent going the way they are or even taking us further which is very encouraging as these guys are only going to get better.”

The Spitfires will finish this year’s campaign against the Middlesex Panthers at Uxbridge on Sunday afternoon and despite being a dead rubber, Key wants to finish the tournament on a high:

“Whenever you play, even if you are out of a competition, you just want to prove what you can do and it will be frustrating if we put in a really good performance as that will show the inconsistancy we’ve had. We just want to put it right and take it into the 40 over game where we’re doing alright.”

The Spitfires should keep faith with the same side that lost to the Essex Eagles at Uxbridge with their attention then turning towards the game against South Africa beginning at Canterbury on Friday.

That three day match will see the likes of Key take a much needed rest with Darren Stevens and Mark Davies expected to have a break, with Geraint Jones likely to skipper the side in Key’s absence.

For Key, the South Africa game is the ideal opportunity to get some red ball cricket in before they look to finish the summer in style:

“We will look at what’s best as we’re fired up for the Championship and the CB40 and we want to continue the way we played at the start of the season. If we do that and we don’t have rain, we have got a good chance of doing well in those.”

“We’ve played some really competitive cricket in both of those forms and it would be wrong to let anything slip from there.”

The Kent captain went on to confirm fans will see the likes of Mike Powell, Ben Harmison and Charlie Shreck return for the South Africa game with Daniel Bell-Drummond in contention to get a game too.