Sam Northeast has admitted that Kent’s inability to close out tight games is what cost them their place in this year’s NatWest T20 Blast competition.

Kent Spitfires face Somerset at Canterbury in their next NatWest T20 Blast game tomorrow night, but go into the encounter knowing their dreams of a quarter-final place are over.

Any hopes they might have had of progressing were well and truly put to bed with a thumping, 63-run defeat to South Group leaders Essex Eagles last Saturday.

Club vice-captain Northeast top-scored for the Spitfires in that defeat with 41, but the damage had already been done as Tom Westley hit a magnificent 105 from just 58 balls for the home side, who posted a daunting 209-5 from their 20 overs.

“I think Essex are a pretty good side in this [T20], and they’re flying at the moment”, Northeast told KSN. “That was always going to be a tough game.”

The 24-year-old admitted that Kent’s inability to finish off some of the closer games earlier in the competition was what had proved to be their downfall however. The Spitfires saw themselves miss out on victories in a number of games in which they looked to have put themselves in a winning position.

“We’re pretty disappointed with some of the results which had gone before where we had our foot in the door and we couldn’t quite get the win”, Northeast admitted.

“Glamorgan, Gloucestershire, Essex at home; those types of games we can probably look back on and think we should have won, and maybe the T20 competition would’ve been a bit different for us.”

The batsman went on to say that he felt the side could now look to focus on their progress in the County Championship, in which they have won their last two matches against Derbyshire and Leicestershire. They will be looking to make it three from three when they face Surrey at Guildford, starting on Sunday.

“We’re two out of two in the Championship, and hopefully we can continue that run”, Northeast said.

“I’d imagine that our focus will be on the four-day stuff now. There’s still the 50-over competition [Royal London One-Day Cup] – still the opportunity to play a Lord’s final, and we all want to get that.

“It’s a tough group that we’ve been put into, but if we get a good start in that and get on a bit of a run, you just never know.

“We’ll be pushing for both competitions for sure.”

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