Overseas signing Vernon Philander is hoping he can take his impressive form into Kent’s T20 game against Surrey on Sunday afternoon.

The 28 year old South African fast bowler couldn’t have had a better start personally for Kent as he recorded figures of four wickets for just eight runs in three devastating overs at Canterbury on Friday night.

However, his performance with the ball was overshadowed as the Spitfires were beaten by Middlesex Panthers by the smallest of margins.

The visitors to the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence edged home by four wickets with two balls to spare in the rain affected game leaving Philander in a reflective mood after what seemed to have been a match winning performance:

“It felt pretty good. Obviously I would have chosen to have been on the winning side, but I will take that as a personal performance.”

“At the end of the day, it is a team effort and it was unlucky that we couldn’t cross the line.”

“It was a great first outing for me seeing as I hadn’t bowled in two and a half months and that will put me in good stead for the rest of the season.”

Philander and his Kent team-mates have very little time to lick their wounds from the narrow loss with Surrey coming to Canterbury on Sunday afternoon and the South African is hoping the side can put on a show for the paying public:

“We’ve got to pick ourselves up pretty quickly and improve in the field as we let ourselves down. I think the quicker we forget about the better and start afresh on Sunday.”

As an experienced international bowler and ranked number two in the Test rankings, Philander sees it as his duty to try and help develop some of Kent’s younger players whilst at the club and believes a change of fielding position could be the key:

“One of the reasons I got signed was to work with the younger lads. Me being at fine leg meant I couldn’t talk to the bowlers so in games to come I will try to find myself at mid-wicket.”

Kent have named an unchanged twelve man squad for the game that starts at 3pm on Sunday with Mark Davies pushing for a place in the side.

Meanwhile, Surrey will travel to Canterbury with a 15 man squad that includes former Australian captain Ricky Ponting and former Kent all-rounder Azhar Mahmood.

Kent squad: Key, Northeast, Billings, Stevens, Blake, Harmison, Tredwell, Philander, Claydon, Coles, Riley, Davies.

Surrey squad: Batty, Ansari, Burns, Davies, Dernbach, De Bruyn, Jewell, Lewis, Azhar Mahmood, Maxwell, Ponting, Roy, Solanki, Tremlett, Wilson.

Picture supplied by www.sarahansellphotography.com