Sam Northeast felt his Kent Spitfires side could take pride from their performance after their Royal London One Day Cup defeat to Yorkshire.

Kent were narrowly beaten by a strong Yorkshire Vikings side at Canterbury; the current County Champions able to name eight internationals in their XI, as they came out on top with a hard-fought 11-run win.

Having restricted the visitors to 256/9 from their 50 overs, a top-order batting collapse saw the Spitfires fall to 66/4 inside 18 overs of their reply. A partnership of 86 for the fifth wicket between Darren Stevens and Alex Blake brought Kent right back into the game, but despite the valiant efforts of the lower order, they were not quite able to see it home.

Northeast admitted that after two narrow quarter-final defeats for Kent last season in limited-overs cricket, another this year was a bitter pill to swallow.

“To lose a bit of a nail-biter again is pretty tough to take”, the 26-year-old skipper told KSN after the game.

“After losing those three or four early wickets, we were always catching up with the rate. Stevo and Blakey got us in a really good position, then we were fighting at the end to get over the line. It didn’t happen again, but I’m very proud of the guys.

“They trained very well this week – I think we were in the best shape we could’ve been – we left nothing out there. That’s all you can do really in those scenarios.”

Northeast was satisfied with where Kent were at the halfway stage of the game, and praised his bowlers for their efforts against a high quality Yorkshire batting lineup.

“It was pretty slow”, he said of the pitch. “With 250 or 260, you still have to put in some application and get over the line. At one stage they looked like they were going to get 300-plus, so to drag them back as we did was a great effort, but 250, 260, on a slowish wicket, was still going to be tough. I felt that we had the players that could’ve done it to chase it down.

“Colesy was probably the stand-out, with 3 for 30-odd”, Northeast said of his attack. “He’s been brilliant in this competition. All of them, through the middle – I can’t really fault them. They dragged it back brilliantly.

“Charlie Hartley, coming in in a quarter-final, having played one other game; to go and put in a performance like that is a special effort. He’s not to be underestimated, Charlie. He always comes in and does a job.”

With a chance of still securing promotion in the County Championship, Northeast admitted that the side would have to get over their disappointments quickly before travelling to Gloucestershire for their next four-day game, starting on Tuesday.

“Luckily we don’t get straight back on the road, so there’s a bit of time to compose ourselves and go back in and refocus”, he said.

“We’re still alive in the County Championship, so that’s a massive motivation for us. The last four games are going to mean something.

“It’s probably going to take two days to get over it a little bit, and then back in training and refocus. We’re in it, we’re in the mix, and it’s nice to be still playing for trophies right at the end of the season.”