Daniel Bell-Drummond hammered 50 off 29 balls as Kent Spitfires beat Essex Eagles by 28 runs on DLS – after lightning and then rain brought an early end to the Vitality Blast match.

Bell-Drummond clubbed his third fifty of the competition during an 89-run stand for the first wicket with Zak Crawley.

The Spitfires endured two collapses to slump to 167 for nine as Simon Harmer claimed four for 26, including his 50th Blast wicket for Essex, and Dan Lawrence a county T20 record of four catches in the innings.

But 31 for four, including two scalps for Matt Milnes, in five overs meant the Eagles were short of the DLS target of 59 – handing Kent their sixth victory of the campaign.

Bell-Drummond and Crawley got the Spitfires off to a flier having been stuck in by Harmer on a used hybrid track.

Crawley received two lives, dropped on one and 14, as Bell-Drummond slapped Jamie Porter for two sixes – the visitors pummelling 82 off the Powerplay.

But after two miserly overs, Kent collapsed in sensational style with five wickets lost for 22 runs in 25 balls, as spin took over.

Nijjar, who eventually took one for 13 in an ungenerous spell, celebrated with Cristiano Ronaldo’s iconic ‘Sii’ leap after bowling Crawley for 43, before Joe Denly was caught by Lawrence at deep midwicket trying to replicate the six he had struck the previous ball and Jack Leaning was stumped off Harmer.

Lawrence turned snarer when Bell Drummond – who had reached a 28 ball half-century – spliced to a sprawling Harmer and Alex Blake was caught behind.

Newly contracted Darren Stevens and Jordan Cox resuscitated the innings with a 44-run stand, with Stevens clubbing a pair of sixes, but another wicket furry ended the innings – this time four wickets falling in 16 balls.

Stevens, Cox and Qais Ahmed were all caught by Lawrence and Matt Milnes was bowled by Jimmy Neesham with the last ball.

Unlike the Spitfires, the Eagles did not pump runs early on.

Will Buttleman was beaten by Milnes’ pace and bounce to be caught behind and Adam Wheater was leg-before attempting to sweep Joe Denly.

Michael Pepper chipped a Milnes slower ball to mid-off and former Spitfire Jimmy Neesham edged Fred Klaassen thickly to gully.

With lightning striking behind the Hayes Close End and then rain the game was called off after the fifth over – the minimum needed to create a result.

Essex captain Simon Harmer, who took four for 26:

“I think it was a bit disappointing the way the game ended. I’ve just spoken to the match referee to air my grievances but it is part of cricket.

“There are always going to be a party which is happy and a party which is unhappy and we got ourselves into a situation where we almost lose the right to have an opinion because we were so far away from the game and that opinion could be seen as sour grapes.

“It is another game where we look back at the end of the season and think ‘what if’. It isn’t the end of our run but just makes the last five games even more important and makes sure we have to win every single one of them.

“We had an amazing opportunity there where we only needed 32 off the Powerplay if we didn’t lose any wickets, so in hindsight it is very disappointing having fought back in the game.”

Kent all-rounder Darren Stevens:

“We started brilliantly with the bat and then had a stumble because it turned quite a bit and then to get to one 170 we thought we were about 20 runs short.

“I thought the way Matt Milnes bowled with the new ball was outstanding.

“Both Zak and Deebs are class players. Zak is playing a lot for England but for me DBD is over the last five years one of the best white ball players in the country. I’m biased being from Kent but I think he deserves higher honours. Fingers crossed it will come to him down the line.

“They bounce off each other so well and it works really well for us.

“We were taking wickets so if we went off we went off. We didn’t talk to the umpires about it at all we were just trying to rush through the overs as normal.”