Kent Spitfires fell to a second FLt20 defeat in four days with a heavy loss at home to the Hampshire Royals on Monday night.

Chasing a daunting 186 to win, Kent were always behind the run rate and eventually fell to a 62-run defeat, ending their innings on 123-9, with Darren Stevens top-scoring for the Spitfires with 39.

Visiting captain Dimitri Mascarenhas won the toss and elected to bat first, his side posting an imposing total largely thanks to opener Michael Carberry, who carried his bat through the innings, finishing on 83 not out from 56 deliveries.

His opening partner James Vince hit consecutive sixes off the bowling of Mitch Claydon in the second over, before being bowled by the on-loan seamer for 18. Jimmy Adams came to the crease at number three, and watched Carberry take the attack to Kent from the other end, taking 16 off Claydon’s second over.

Adams then departed in the fifth for just two, caught by Claydon off the bowling of the recalled Mark Davies.

Matt Coles came on to bowl the final powerplay over and was dispatched for three boundaries by Neil McKenzie, as the visitors reached 63-2 at the end of the powerplay.

Adam Riley and Darren Stevens came into the attack and slowed the run rate, though Carberry and McKenzie continued to accumulate and find the boundary, the score moving onto 101-2 after 12 overs.

Davies’ final over then went for 16, as he ended his first T20 appearance of the season with figures of 1-33 from his four overs. As Carberry and McKenzie continued to put build their partnership, Kent broke it on 137 with a run-out, completed by Adam Riley despite Neil McKenzie’s last minute slide sending the pair to the deck – the South African batsman back in the dugout for 45 from 35 balls.

The third wicket brought the fourth quickly for the Spitfires, as the ever-dangerous Mascarenhas was excellently caught on the midwicket boundary by a stretching Ben Harmison off the bowling of Matt Coles for just four, leaving the Royals on 147-4 with 21 balls left in the innings.

The remaining three overs did bring two further wickets, but continued to be expensive. In the penultimate over, Coles had Sean Ervine caught by Alex Blake on the boundary, but next ball served up a waist-high full toss to new batsman Liam Dawson which was dispatched for another maximum.

Mitchell Claydon bowled the final over, worth 13 runs to last year’s FLt20 champions, Dawson eventually bowled with the final ball of the innings for 17, the Royals ending on the impressive total of 185-6, at least 40 to 50 more than the home side would have been hoping for.

The Spitfires reply started solidly if not too spectacularly, as Daniel Bell-Drummond and Fabian Cowdrey put on 27 for the first wicket in 4.2 overs. Bell-Drummond played an exquisite drive to the long-off boundary, before edging Mascarenhas to Ervine at first slip two overs later.

Cowdrey, who hit his maiden senior century on Friday evening against Surrey at The Oval, was out just two deliveries later, Chris Wood taking a juggling catch at mid-on to give Mascarenhas a second wicket in an over which also cost just two runs.

Sam Billings and Darren Stevens came together at the crease tasked with rebuilding the innings after the loss of two quick wickets, and started slowly, with Kent reaching the end of the powerplay overs on 32-2 – some way behind the Royals who were 63-2 at the same stage.

Stevens settled, and hit spinner Liam Dawson for big, consecutive sixes in the 11th over; the first flying narrowly over the roof of the Kent dugout and the second a long way over midwicket.

Dawson’s next over would prove to be the decider of the match, however, as he picked up three wickets for just one run in six balls. First Billings was caught by Ervine at long-off for 31, before Stevens was caught two balls later by Mascarenhas at leg slip attempting to sweep. Alex Blake then came in and was stumped off the first ball he faced, leaving the Kent reply in tatters at 89-5.

The scoring rate then never really picked up again. Harmison and Jones both fell for single figures, and Matt Coles made 19, including one big maximum over long-on.

Mark Davies thought his was the last wicket to fall, run out without scoring, bringing some laughs to proceedings as he shook hands with his opponents thinking the match was over, with last-man-in Adam Riley still making his way to the crease.

Riley and Claydon saw Kent to the end of proceedings as they finished on 123-9, some way short of their target.

Kent now forward to a busy week, with their final T20 fixture away at Hove against the Sussex Sharks on Wednesday and a LV= Championship game at Worcester starting on Friday.

Hampshire won the toss and elected to bat.

Kent side: Bell-Drummond, Cowdrey, Billings, Stevens, Blake, Harmison, Jones, Haggett, Coles, Claydon, Riley.

Hampshire side: Carberry, Vince, Adams, McKenzie, Ervine, Wheater, Dawson, Mascarenhas, Wood, Briggs, Griffiths.

Result: Hampshire Royals 185-6 (Carberry 83no, McKenzie 45, Coles 2-41) beat Kent Spitfires 123-9 (Stevens 33, Dawson 4-19) by 62 runs.