Vitality Blast champions Gloucestershire have finally got their first win of the season, at the sixth attempt, after beating the Kent Spitfires by seven wickets at Canterbury with 10 balls to spare.

Jack Taylor top-scored with 54 not out and Ollie Price cashed in with an unbeaten 41 after being bowled off a no ball and dropped.

Earlier Kent posted a modest looking 157 for nine. Ajeet Singh Dale took 3 for 24, while David Payne, took 1 for 18 and went for just 4.5 an over. Harry Finch was the Spitfires’ top scorer with 42.

The hosts chose to bat first but Sunday’s centurion, Daniel Bell-Drummond, went for just three, pulling Singh Dale to Ollie Price at mid-wicket.

Tawanda Muyeye had made 33 from 22 when Singh Dale had him caught on the boundary by D’Arcy Short, leaving Finch and Sam Billings to bat relatively cautiously, putting on 74 for the third wicket but taking 9.4 overs to do it.

Billings was just starting to get going, hitting successive reverse swept fours, when he was bowled by Josh Shaw for 38.

Finch was on 40 when he ramped Singh Dale and although Jack Taylor couldn’t take a diving catch, he did save three runs and having taken the strike Joey Evison hit Singh Dale’s next delivery straight to Graeme van Buuren.

Payne’s cutters were almost unplayable and two outstanding catches gave them Taylor two wickets in as many balls. Finch finally went when Miles Hammond parried the ball inside the rope, hopped over it to keep his balance and then hopped back to complete the catch Tom Rogers then went for a golden duck as Charlesworth somehow clung on one-handed while diving forwards.

When Grant Stewart drove Josh Shaw straight to Taylor for one Gloucestershire were through to the bowlers.

Jack Leaning restored some impetus with successive fours, but he was bowled by Payne for 18 in the 20th. Fred Klaassen was run out off the next ball chasing a single and at halfway Gloucestershire looked favourites.

Short pulled Agar for six in the fourth over but with the score 29-0 the players had to go off because sunlight was dazzling the batters at The Nackington Road End.

Play resumed after an 11-minute delay which seemed to unsettle the visitors as they lost three wickets in ten balls. Rogers made the breakthrough when Short tried to hook him and Billings caught him for 33 after the ball hung in the air for several seconds.

Cameron Bancroft flashed at Evison and was caught by a flying Billings for three and Parkinson removed Hammond for 25 in the next over, caught by Rogers at cow corner.

The visitors however, were given a huge break when Wes Agar bowled Ollie Price middle stump off in the 10th, only for it be ruled a no-ball. Price got a second life in the next over when Parkinson dropped an easy caught and bowled chance.

The air went out of the Spitfire Ground and what might have been a contest turned into a non-event as any scoreboard pressure evaporated, Taylor glancing Agar for four to secure the win.

Gloucestershire’s Ajeet Singh Dale said: “Obviously we’re just delighted to be up and running now. We were wondering when that first win was coming and felt like we were playing some good cricket so we’re delighted to be up there.

“We’ve just tried to keep it simple (in the last two games). We’ve had two wickets where you just felt that hitting the wicket hard was going to offer something so we didn’t have to go to our yorkers or variations too much and I think as a group we did that really well today.

(On previous problem running on the wicket).“To be honest the footmarks in Bristol are a bit crumbly and the adrenaline I’ve been running in very hard and I just think I was sort of falling in, but I’ve done a bit of work so yeah, it’s sorted.”

Jack Taylor said: “They’ve been a long time coming so it’s nice to get over that hurdle and hopefully we can get on a bit of a roll now. I just think we were sharper in our execution and it’s what we’ve asked of the guys in the first five games and we did today. I thought we pegged them back really nicely in the first innings.

“They were probably set for 180 or 190 so to peg it back to just under 16, we’d have taken that at the start. It was one of those (partnerships) where we said we’ve got to be there at the end and give ourselves a chance because you know you can catch up here. We weren’t going to give it away at the back end, we had to get it over the line.”

Kent’s Sam Billings said: “We were probably 10 or 15 runs short of course but I think again if we’d held that catch there were little moments when the game was in the balance.

“I thought we were in the game, especially after that flurry of wickets but like you said we were probably 10 or 15 runs slightly short and it was just one of those days unfortunately.

“We just haven’t quite pieced it together yet in this tournament, we’ve had some brilliant results but it’s been kind of individual brilliance as opposed to collective brilliance coming together.

“Again, we can probably learn from tonight and move on but we’ve been playing pretty well without putting it altogether and tonight was just an off night really.”