Kent Spitfires hopes of making the Twenty 20 Quarter Finals ended after a 23 run defeat to the Essex Eagles at Canterbury on Friday night.

Needing a win to have any chance of making it into the last eight of the competition, the Spitfires fell short of their 150 run target, with the Eagles winning the game at a canter.

It had all started so well for the Spitfires after skipper Rob Key had won the toss and elected to bowl first with the Spitfires captain taking to the field with the same side that had beaten the Surrey Lions at The Oval just 24 hours previously.

Once again, Mark Davies proved his value to the side as he picked up a wicket with only the second ball of the game.

New Zealander James Franklin clipped one straight to Rob Key at cover without troubling the scorers, much to the delight of the majority of the 4,500 crowd packed into the St Lawrence Ground.

The early breakthrough should have given the Spitfires the impetus to go on and take more wickets, but instead it was the Eagles that took control with Mark Pettini and Greg Smith happy to work the ball around, whilst putting any bad balls to the boundary.

Key looked to rotate his bowlers around as he went in search of a wicket and it took until the 13th over to conjure up the second of the game with Greg Smith clipping Darren Stevens to Davies at cover, but he’d made 32 at that point.

With the Eagles seemingly set for a massive score, some credit must go to the Kent attack as they clawed themselves back into the game.

Pettini was the next man to go as he was run out by Key for 59, an innings of gentle shots and a touch of aggression that contained three fours and two sixes. It will come as no surprise that Owais Shah was at the other end when the run out happened with Pettini going for the run as Shah stood his ground.

105 for 3 then became 105 for 4 as Ryan ten Doeschate was sent back to the pavillion after a great piece of glovework from Geraint Jones had the Dutch all-rounder stumped off the bowling of Stevens.

Wicketkeeper James Foster came and went too as he became Stevens’ third victim of the night, picking out Sam Billings in the deep, leaving the Kent all-rounder with superb figures of 3 for 13 off his four overs as the Eagles went on to post 149 for 5 in their twenty overs.

With a modest 150 runs to win, the Spitfires seemingly forgot it was the shorter format of the game and were too cautious in their approach with openers Sam Billigs and Sam Northeast bogged down by some accurate Essex bowling.

The pair had put on nineteen runs, when in the fifth over Sam Billings played all around one from former Kent seamer David Masters and was out for just 8 off 16 balls.

Key came in at three, but even he couldn’t move the run rate on as the Spitfires were 21 for 1 after the six powerplay overs.

Like Billings, Key was to find his stumps disturbed, this time by Franklin and was back on his way for 7 off 14 balls.

Sam Northeast’s 28 ball innings came to a bizarre end in the eleventh over when he was put down in the deep by Tim Phillips, only to be run out by the spinner as he went for a second run.

Two balls later and the game was effectively over as a contest when Darren Stevens was also run out, this time with Azhar Mahmood refusing to leave his ground.

Wickets continued to fall as the realisation set in that the Spitfires were going to be tasting defeat. Next to go was Mahmood as he was bowled by Masters for 11, just one ball after smashing him down the ground for six.

Alex Blake couldn’t recreate the heroics of The Oval as he was cleaned up by a sharp Reece Topley ball for 13 off 6 balls.

Both Adam Ball and Geraint Jones put up some stiff resistance, but by that point the required rate was climbing all the time and in the end the pressure told as Ball picked out Phillips in the deep off Franklin for 18.

At that point the score was 102 for 7 and some fans began to make their way for the exits. They left in their droves within the next over as Topley bowled both Simon Cook and Mark Davies in successive balls.

Despite some aggressive hitting from Jones (24 off 17 balls) and supported by Adam Riley (5 off 4), the Spitfires could only muster 126 for 9 from their twenty overs, stills some 24 runs short of their target and they left the field to the knowledge their Twenty 20 campaign was effectively at an end.

The Spitfires still have one game left to play though in what will be a dead rubber against the Middlesex Panthers at Uxbridge on Sunday afternoon.

Kent won the toss and elected to bowl.

Kent side: Northeast, Billings, Key, Stevens, Mahmood, Blake, Jones, Ball, Cook, Davies, Riley.

Essex side: Pettini, Franklin, Smith, Shah, ten Doeschate, Foster, Napier, Wheater, Phillips, Masters, Topley.

Umpires: S Gale & N Mallender

Result: Essex Eagles 149 for 5 (20 overs), Kent Spitfires 126 for 9 (20 overs). Essex Eagles won by 23 runs.