Essex won their first Vitality Blast game of the season when they routed the Kent Spitfires by nine wickets at Canterbury on Friday.

The visitors held Kent to just 129 for nine from their 20 overs, with Charlie Bennett and Wiaan Mulder claiming three for 25 and three for 26 respectively as they wiped out the Spitfires’ top order.

Dian Forrester was Kent’s top scorer with 34.

Michael Pepper then hit 64, including three sixes and six fours, and Paul Walter an unbeaten 42 as Essex chased down the target with 6.2 overs to spare.

Essex chose to bowl and did so ruthlessly. They took the prize wicket of Tawanda Muyeye for one in the second over, when he pulled Bennett to Luc Benkenstein at deep backward square and Zak Crawley went in the next over for seven, driving Shane Snater straight to Mulder.

Sam Billings went for eight in the fourth, ramping Zaman Akhter straight to Bennett and when Daniel Bell-Drummond charged down the wicket to Mulder he was caught behind for 13 Kent were 30-4 – and there were still two balls left of the powerplay.

Joe Denly briefly got the crowd going when he pulled Mulder for six, but Mulder bowled him two balls later for 14.

Simon Harmer’s 12th over was a maiden and scoring was painfully slow, until the 15th, which went for 14. However, Lintott skied Bennett to Pepper for 18, Forrester hit Bennett to Paul Walter at short fine leg and Tom Rogers made just seven before he lofted Mulder to Luc Benkenstein.

Matt Milnes hit a couple of fours in the 19th and Fred Klaassen then heaved Snater for a six, only to get caught by Walter off the next ball for eight.

The target looked meagre, but Kent were in the game for a good three overs, until Walter and Pepper got their eyes in.

On the rare occasions when they played false shots the ball never landed near a fielder: Pepper was on 24 when he miscued Rogers, but none of the three Kent fielders converging on the ball could reel in the catch and Muyeye injured his arm in the process.

When Pepper hit Matt Parkinson for four through extra cover to reach 50 any lingering doubt about the outcome had been extinguished, and although Rogers got Pepper caught behind trying a ramp, Billings then dropped Charlie Allison when he gloved the next ball.

Allison used the reprieve to hit the winning runs, pulling Klaassen for four through cow corner, handing the Spitfires their first defeat of the season.

* The result means Essex regain the Mike Denness Shield, played for by these two sides each year across all formats.

Essex’s Simon Harmer said: “It was very pleasing how the boys responded after the first two games. I think in the first couple of games we had played well in patches but hadn’t really put it all together. I think the bowlers made it look like the wicket was worse than it was which is a credit to them. And then I think the way that Paulie and Peps pretty much saw the team home I think was very mature and it’s good to get some points on the ball.

“It was so pleasing to see the boys sort of learn from the mistakes that we’ve made and I think a very strong top six of Kent to be able to put in a performance like that was very good.

“It was very pleasing to see somebody like Charlie Bennett and the maturity that he’s bowling with. He’s definitely got x-factor and he’s brought a different dimension to our bowling line-up and then Wiaan as well, I think he was a bit hard done by against Hampshire, I think against two very experienced death hitters.

“I don’t think he bowled as badly as his figures sort of showed and so for him to put in a performance like that for us tonight was really pleasing and I’m very happy for him.

“Their top six is capable of destroying bowling attacks but yeah Snates has been a banker for us. He is extremely accurate, very clear on his plans so as a captain it’s nice to have somebody like that.“I think the way that Michael and Paulie went about the chase was very mature.”

Kent’s Sam Billings said: “It was one of those days. T20 is pretty fickle game at the best of times, and on the back are probably one of the better wins that we’ve had as a T20 team on Monday, obviously, tonight was just the complete opposite.

“Like I said, just one of those things, you kind of draw a line under it pretty quickly, and you move on to Surrey. We play some brilliant cricket the first two games and it’s just a real shame, because it was a great crowd.

“It felt like it was set up for a great evening, and the wicket wasn’t as good as it normally is here, probably, but we didn’t adapt well enough.“

And any time you’re four or five down early you really need miracle to get it out of that. So, like I said, just one of those things and we’ve got to move on and try and look forward to Sunday at the Oval.”