Daniel Bell-Drummond hammered his this third Vitality Blast half-century of the season to help Kent finish second in the southern group and set up a home Quarter Final against Lancashire.

Bell-Drummond was out at the start of the final over for 80 from 51 balls as Kent crossed the line with one ball to spare to record their eighth T20 win of the campaign. With Joe Denly, Bell-Drummond set the ball rolling in pursuit of 202 to win with a 98-run opening stand. When he departed he had hit eight fours and three sixes.

The Spitfires had qualified for the knockout stages the night before when they beat Somerset by five runs. Their visit to The Cloudfm County Ground was, therefore, to decide venue and opponents for next week’s quarter-final.

Despite the defeat, it was a memorable evening for Essex’s veteran all-rounder Ravi Bopara. He marked his 300th career T20 appearance by taking his 200th wicket, returning four-over figures of one for 22. He also claimed 25 off 10 balls, including two sixes, to move within seven runs of 6,000 in the 16 years of the shortest form of the game.

Essex passed 200 for the second time in 24 hours, but only the second time this season after claiming only their second win of a dismal season against Middlesex on Thursday night.

It was an Essex team chosen with an eye on the resumption of the Specsavers County Championship on Sunday against Somerset at Taunton. Captain Ryan ten Doeschate plus pacemen Peter Siddle and Sam Cook were rested, while spinner Aron Nijjar and Dutch international Shane Snater made their T20 debuts for the Eagles.

Denly and Bell-Drummond made a storming start on the ground where they compiled a then world-record opening stand of 207 a year ago. They had fifty on the board inside five overs with both batsmen finding the boundary with some regularity and ease.

Bell-Drumiond hit the first three balls of Paul Walter’s second over for two fours and a straight six, and greeted Snater’s introduction with a six in an over that cost 23. Denly also hit Nijjar over his head for a six in his opening over.

Bell-Drummond’s fifty took 27 balls, and included two sixes and six fours. But with the partnership approaching three-figures in nine overs he lost Denly. The all-rounder, who had earlier chipped in with two Essex wickets for 33, came down the wicket to Nijjar and found Michael Pepper on the long-off boundary. He had contributed 45 from 23 balls, with seven fours and a six.

Heino Kuhn did not last long before he became Bopara’s landmark victim when he was bowled.

That brought in Sam Billings, the captain, and he wasted no time in leading from the front. Nijjar was deposited high over the ropes at long-leg and Harmer well over the midwicket boundary during a 19-ball 33 that took the Spitfires past 150 in the 15th over. He perished when Dan Lawrence took a diving catch as he raced in.

Bell-Drummond survived a run-out attempt on 69 when Varun Chopra broke the non-striker’s wicket with a throw from the opposite end, but he was adjudged to have just made it back to his crease. With three overs left, Kent required 33 to win, 22 off two.

They lost Alex Blake for 19 as he tried to work Snater off his legs, and Matt Coles snaffled the catch at short fine leg. They were still 20 runs short, but Snater helped them on their way with four wides and they needed nine runs from six balls.

But Bell-Drmmond exited with four balls left when held by Snater at deep midwicket to give Coles the wicket. However, Grant Stewart made up for some indifferent bowling by striking the winning boundary from the penultimate ball.

Kent won the toss and opted to field. They were not helped when Australian Grant Stewart sent down three wides in his first four balls, and when he did bowl a legitimate delivery Varun Chopra pulled him over midwicket for six in an over that cost 15.

Wheater had already reverse-swept a four off Denly, and taken successive boundaries off Haggett before paddle-sweeping a six off Milne to bring up the Eagles’ fifty at the start of the sixth over.

The wicketkeeper-batsman dealt equally harshly with Imran Qayyum who went for two fours in a row. But he perished for a 25-ball 40, including six fours and that six, when he lofted Haggett to Sean Dickson on the midwicket rope.

When Stewart returned, Chopra pulled a full-toss for his second six as Essex reached three-figures from 64 balls. But having already been tied up in knots by Denly, misjudged a straight one and was bowled for 37. Paul Walter followed two balls later, caught at long-off for 29 from 14 balls, including a six over cow corner off Claydon.

Dan Lawrence hit a career-best 86 at Lord’s 24 hours earlier, and underlined his improvement in the shorter format by chipping Denly back over the bowler’s head for six. He collected four more from a reverse sweep, but next ball went for an injudicious ramp shot against Claydon, missed the ball and was bowled for 19.

Ashar Zaidi hit Haggett for successive boundaries, but became over-ambitious when he tried to land a six over cow corner, but only succeeded in finding Dickson positioned for just such a shot.

Bopara lofted Claydon for an enormous six over midwicket and followed up two balls later by a second over long-off. He finished an over in which he added 18 to his personal account with a four backward of square.

Harmer, captaining in the absence of ten Doeschate, departed when he feathered a catch behind off Milne before Matt Coles took two from the last ball to take Essex past 200.

Kent head coach Matt Walker said: “This was the objective from the start of this campaign – to qualify from the pool and even better get a home quarter-final. Credit to the boys, they’ve played brilliantly in this tournament and we deserve everything we’ve got.

“There are lots of different games, different ways we’ve won games, but a lot of really brave and courageous cricket played at times. When you do that, and things click and you start believing and get on a winning roll and things start to happen for you. It’s nice to come here knowing we’d already qualified last night, but equally we wanted to push for a home quarter-final. I thought our run chase was masterful.

“Whichever way we’ve done it in white-ball this season we’ve done it well. We’ve chased well, we’ve defended very well. You have to do that if you’re going to progress in this competitions, you can’t rely on one way of doing things. To come here is never easy and to chase down 200 is a great effort.

“I loved the way the boys played tonight, it was brave and positive and everyone stood up – and we won the last over. We’re becoming that complete team and we back ourselves to get things done – the confidence in the way we bowled and the way we batted. That fills a team with great belief. We can move forward in this competition knowing we have both sets of skills.”

Kent play Lancashire in the last eight on Thursday night, looking for revenge after losing a tied knockout game on wickets lost in 2015. Walker said: “I remember it well. It was a great game, but we finished on the wrong side of it unfortunately. Every team you meet in a quarter-final are going to be very tough to beat, but we’re on our home patch and that’s brilliant for the club, brilliant for the fans. It’s hopefully a chance to get a good result this year. We’ll need to be at our best to beat them as you do when you get to this stage of the competition.”

Kent move on to Leicestershire on Sunday in the Championship, and Walker said: “No, there’s no chance to celebrate unfortunately. We’ll try and get our heads down tonight, have some practice tomorrow, get used to the red-ball again and go again on Sunday. It’s a quick turnaround into red-ball cricket and it’ll be an even quicker turn-around into a quarter-final. It’s never easy to get yourself properly prepared, but it is what it is. No rest for the wicked as they say.”

Essex all-rounder Ravi Bopara made his 300th career T20 appearance and took his 200th wicket in the competition. He said: “It means a lot, 300 games, but I’m not stopping there. I hope to get to 400-500 one day. I don’t see any reason why. I’m still fit and I’m still loving the game, so hopefully that 400-500 will come. You better watch this space.”

Bopara also finished the campaign just seven runs shy of 6,000 in T20. He said: “If I faced a bit more of that last over I might have got it all in one go! I blame Colesy for taking twos.”

He added: “It was not an ideal result, but we played some good cricket. We certainly played some good cricket yesterday at Lord’s, but tonight we were the wrong side of a run chase. But either way we have improved in the last few games compared where we were at the start of the competition.

“Sometimes the best comes out of you from being knocked down so many times. That is when you come out with all the right ideas, positivity and bravery. We did that. We talked about it, we had our meetings – sometimes you need to clear the air, and we did. We’ve come out the other side a lot better. We’ve learnt a lot and hopefully we can remember if and bring it in next year.

“I’m disappointed with the way we played. Sometimes you just want to make things right, be given the chance to make things right. Just as we start to play a bit of good cricket it’s over. I’m never happy that T20 is over – I love it. It’s a brilliant format, the public love it, the players love it and it’s a joy to play and a joy to watch.”