The Kent Spitfires have beaten Lancashire by 22 runs in a Metro Bank Cup thriller at Beckenham, despite a magnificent century from Josh Bohannon.

Jaydn Denly and Ben Dawkins both hit their highest List A scores, making 91 and 85 respectively as Kent posted 315 for eight.

Bohannon batted through what looked like significant pain towards the back end of his innings made 133 from 110 balls, including 17 fours and two sixes, but when he fell to Denly in the 47th over, Lancashire’s last-wicket duo of Tom Bailey and Charlie Barnard needed 30 from the last three overs.

Bailey hit the first ball of the 48th for six, but he was run out by Chris Benjamin chasing a non-existent single and Kent had won with 15 balls remaining.

Kent’s Matt Parkinson finished with three for 57 against his former county, while Marcus Harris made 54.

Lancashire chose to bowl but failed to take a vital wicket: Denly was on 2 when he was put down by keeper George Bell off George Balderson. Assuming he’d been caught Denly was out of his ground when he was nearly run out by a shy at the stumps from first slip.

The teenage duo responded by putting on a record first-wicket stand of 155 for vs Lancashire, with Dawkins making the early running and blazing 50 from 43 balls before Bailey had him caught by Bohannon in the 25th. (Kent’s next highest partnership was 36.)

Bailey struck again in his next over, getting Joey Evison for four and Denly was lbw to Arav Shetty nine runs shy of a century. Benjamin was the next to go for 34, caught by Luke Hands off Charlie Barnard.

Harry Singh bowled Harry Finch for 15 and Balderson had Ekansh Singh caught by Joseph Moores for 21.

Lancashire might have had even more joy but Shetty somehow dropped an easy caught and bowled chance off Jack Leaning when he was on six.

Leaning couldn’t really cash in however and was out for 17, ramping Balderson straight to Marcus Harris.

Grant Stewart clubbed two sixes in the final over but was run out off the final ball for 32 from 17 balls.

Matt Quinn struck in the second over of the chase, getting Bell caught by Benjamin at first slip for a duck, but Kent then lost their captain Stewart after what looked like a recurrence of a thigh injury, pulling up at the start of what would have been his fourth over. (Quinn was also forced off with an unspecified injury).

Evison took over and bowled Michael Jones leg stump for 26, but Bohannon and Harris hit back with a partnership worth 96 that was broken when the latter hit Parkinson to the sub fielder Fred Klaassen at cow corner.

Parkinson then had Harry Singh caught by a diving Jack Leaning for five before Leaning got Joe Moores for 19, just as the 16-year-old was looking set, thanks to a brilliant catch by Ben Compton, also a sub.

When Leaning then removed Balderson for a duck, caught by Denly, Kent looked favourites but Bohannon reached three figures after hitting a Denly full toss for four and Shetty was looking good until Parkinson had him stumped by Finch for 27, ending a stand of 54.

Denly got Luke Hands for three, but with 50 needed from the last five, the 46th went for 11 but at the end of the 47th Bohannon holed out to Evison and was caught by Klaassen on the boundary before walking off to a standing ovation from the Beckenham crowd.

Bailey responded by whacking the next ball, from Parkinson, for six, but after taking a single from the next ball, Charlie Barnard called a suicidal single and Bailey was run out by Rizvi and Benjamin and Kent were finally off the mark in Group B.

Kent’s Jaydn Denly said: “My team mate’s got off to an absolute flyer. He (Dawkins) batted outstandingly and for his second game that was absolutely outstanding. It was a really mature innings. He was striking the ball better than I’ve seen anyone strike the ball this year so that was really impressive and really good to see from someone young and Ekansh obviously has been playing beautifully as well.

(On not getting the strike for three overs).“When I came in a lot of the lads said what’s the record for the longest time at the crease when you’ve not faced and I think was near, but if my team mate’s doing a job I’m not too bothered if I’m not facing.”

(On being dropped on two) “He could have run me out, I was already walking off! I definitely did hit it, I thought he’d caught it and then his elbows hit the floor and it dropped on the floor. It’s always nice to get a bit of luck on your side and then once that happened you’ve got to try and go and get a big score for the team. Obviously we’ve had a bit of a losing streak but now we’ve won hopefully we can carry it on.

“Once you’re in on a Beckenham wicket it’s a really good wicket and you can play all sorts of shots. Obviously it was a bit on the slower side but when you’re in on it it’s an absolute belter, it’s one of the best in England.

“We thought that (315) was a really good score. It got a bit tough with the slower seamers bowling cutters and the off spinners in the middle so we thought that was a really good score and that we could defend it.

(On Bohannon) “That was something special, he always seems to score some runs against us. Hopefully that’s going to stop sometime soon. He played superbly, he was going to be the guy that won the game but luckily we got him at the end.

“We’ve got two main spinners in the team so I didn’t expect to bowl much anyway, but if I can I’m always happy to come and help the team and I strangled myself a wicket, which is always nice. It’s really nice (to get off the mark.) Spirits are high now and we’ve got two away games now so hopefully we two wins on the road as well.”

Lancashire’s Josh Bohannon said: “It was obviously a relatively good pitch and we felt like we restricted them at the end to a relatively chaseable total. We always felt in the game the whole way through and yeah, to get that close like that it always hurts a little bit more. I think sometimes if you get blasted away you can blame yourselves a little bit and we sort of feel that we’ve chucked one away that we had in the bag really.

“The two young lads for them up front I thought played incredibly well and we’ve got some really good, experienced bowlers in our line up as well. We felt during that middle phase when we started to get a bit of a cluster of wickets we held them back quite nicely, so yeah, to end up taking that momentum into our innings and then not do it through the middle phase and the back end there hurts just a little bit more I think.

(On batting through pain).“I’ve not scored too many runs recently so my body’s not used to it, but I just had a bit of cramp in my left calf, it didn’t hamper me. It was disappointing not to see it over the line and frustrating having done all the hard work I guess.

“We’ve said all the time during the comp, we have got young players. Two 16-year-olds played today and held up their own games and well. Moorsey in the field was excellent, setting the standard at 16 and Hands with his bowling and the confidence they had coming into bat. It didn’t come off today in terms of scores with the bat but they’re immensely talented and you mix that in with the likes of Arav, the talent in that group is not in question at all. They’re quick learners and they’ll benefit massively from this.”