For the second night running Surrey held their nerve in a low-scoring NatWest T20 Blast thriller to land a 10-run over Kent that secured their place in the knock-out stages and sent Spitfires spinning out of this year’s short-form extravaganza.

The win, Surrey’s seventh in this season’s mega-tight south group, was in doubt through to the final over when Rikki Clarke bagged three Spitfires wickets for only four runs to inflict Kent’s seventh defeat. With their third successive victory, Surrey also secured a home quarter final while Kent missed out on the last eight for the second season running.

In pursuit of Surrey’s 154 for nine Spitfires’ first-wicket partners Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond – fresh from their previous night’s world-record T20 opening stand of 207 against Essex – initially took a slightly more measured approach.

Denly drove straight to the ropes off Jade Dernbach and Bell-Drummond cut wide ones from Sam Curran through to the boundary boards at extra cover. But when Curran dropped short, Bell-Drummond rocked back to hit a brace of sixes over mid-wicket.

With Kent’s total on 39 Bell-Drummond (22) played across a clever Dernbach slower ball to go lbw, but Denly glanced for four against Dernbach and drove through extra off Clarke to help Spitfires post 50 for one during their powerplay.

Denly changed his bat to crunch a length-ball from Stuart Meaker through the covers then Sam Northeast cut one through the legs of Jason Roy at backward point for another boundary.

Medium-pacers Moises Henriques and Stuart Meaker stemmed the flow of boundaries and, with 78 on the board, Northeast’s mistimed pull off Meaker was well held by Sam Curran at mid-wicket.

Sam Billings strode in to take advantage of further sloppy Surrey fielding by hitting 11 off Meaker’s next over, but Henriques pounced to bowl Billings (15) via an inside edge as Kent fell behind the Duckworth/Lewis/Stern rate for the first time.

Denly’s stay ended for 40 when he edged an attempted steer against Clarke through to the keeper to bring together Darren Stevens and Jimmy Neesham with 56 still needed.

The fifth-wicket partners both struggled for timing as Surrey’s attack found good lengths and, with four overs remaining, Kent still required 41.

Neesham finally found his range by clipping a leg-side six off Dernbach to reduce the target to 26 but Stevens (13) then nicked behind when cutting at Curran to give Surrey renewed hope.

Fellow left-handers Neesham and Alex Blake swished lustily and, with 23 needed, Blake clubbed a six off Dernbach who countered with four crucial dot balls that ramped up the pressure.

With 15 needed off the last over the hugely experienced Clarke caught and bowled Blake (9), had Neesham (17) caught on the deep mid-wicket ropes and snared Adam Milne (2) lbw with a slow full toss to break Kentish hearts and end the game with stunning, four-over figures of four for 16.

Fielding first after losing the toss, Kent made an immediate tactical switch by opening the bowling with left-arm spinner Imran Qayyum, who conceded only seven – most of which came from Aaron Finch’s first six of the night over backward square.

Kiwi all-rounder Jimmy Neesham conceded a brace of boundaries to Jason Roy in the second over, then his countryman Adam Milne suffered similar punishment as 15 came off over three.

Having already changed his bat twice, Roy launched his first six into the pavilion in the fourth over from Mitch Claydon as 12 came off the over, but Finch’s involvement ended when he played on when attempting a back-foot force off Milne.

Milne’s next delivery, a shooting off-cutter, trapped Moises Henriques lbw without troubling. Ben Foakes survived Milnes’ hat-trick delivery but, with two quick wickets in the bag, Kent slipped Qayyum back into the attack for the final powerplay over that ended with the visitors on 59 for two.

Roy moved to his 26th T20 50 from 31 balls with a straight six off Darren Stevens as Surrey reached 98 for two at the innings mid-point.

Claydon returned to have Foakes (13) well caught low down by Qayyum at mid-off but Roy cantered on, moving to 78 with an impudent flick over third man off a Calum Haggett but, after clubbing 10 fours and four sixes, Roy miscued to deep mid-wicket to spark Kentish celebrations.

Curran and Ollie Pope both struggled against the extreme pace of Milne and the tenacity of Haggett and Claydon. Surrey’s fifth-wicket pair mustered only 19 before Pope (10) was bowled when aiming an audacious lap over the keeper’s head to give Haggett creditable figures of two for 32.

Rikki Clarke (3) holed out to mid-off against Neesham who, three balls later, picked up Rory Burns (4) off a skier to extra cover to finish with two for 26.

Milne switched ends for the last over to skittle Curran (20) off an under edge and finish with three for 26 as Surrey set Kent 155 to win at a rate of 7.75 an over on a tricky pitch.

Kent skipper Sam Northeast bemoaned the standard of the two-paced Canterbury pitch for Spitfires’ poor home form that culminated with his side’s 10-run defeat.

“Once again we didn’t get the style of surface we asked for which was very disappointing. We wanted something
very much flatter than that and it’s something we’ll have to look at moving forward.

“Jason Roy got them off to a flyer at the start and, although we dragged them back really well, as a batting unit, I expected us to chase that target down, but we came up a bit short. We played really good cricket in the two games coming into this and gave ourselves a chance but this was a disappointing end. The reality is we weren’t good enough for large parts of this tournament and we’ve fallen short as a result.”

Surrey’s top-scorer Jason Roy praised his side’s bowlers for securing their place in the last eight. He said: “It’s a very happy dressing room up there because we feel we got ourselves out of a really tricky situation with the ball tonight. Credit to our bowlers, Rikki [Clarke] and ‘Junior’ [Sam Curran] for restricting Kent so well in the powerplay and building the pressure.

“We need to look ahead now. We’ve made far too many mistakes and had hiccups but we’ve got a home quarter final, which is the best we could have hoped for.

“I managed to get a decent total on the board for us to defend and, although our fielding wasn’t up to standards, we bowled really well and hopefully it’ll be a different story whenever our next game is.

“Rikki stepped up beautifully because bowling the last over is never easy. We now have another person who can bowl at the death, we usually rely on Jade or Tom Curran, so happy days, Rikki gives us another string to our bow.”