Jake Lintott and Harry Finch enjoyed memorable days out at the Kia Oval as Kent Spitfires crushed Surrey by eight wickets in the Vitality Blast.

Lintott’s left-arm wrist spin claimed three for 19 to spearhead a fine all-round bowling performance by Kent, before Finch’s 64 not out led the Spitfires home.

And Spitfires captain Sam Billings also had fun with a quickfire unbeaten 42 as Kent eased to 118 for two in reply to Surrey’s 116 all out, winning with six overs to spare.

Finch and Billings added an unbroken 89 for the third wicket after both Daniel Bell-Drummond (7) and Zak Crawley (2) had fallen cheaply in the six-over powerplay.

Bell-Drummond was yorked by Tom Lawes and Crawley skied Reece Topley to mid off, but by then Finch had already signalled his intentions by taking a four and a beautifully-struck six off Tom Curran.

In all Finch faced 42 balls, hitting that six and eight fours, while Billings struck Lawes for three fours in an over and hit six in total from 28 balls in what was only Kent’s second Blast win against Surrey in their last nine meetings.

Tom Curran was a lone threat with the bat for Surrey, his 32 off 21 balls featuring a six and three fours.

Surrey’s innings got off to a bad start, with Will Jacks splicing a simple catch to cover to go for a duck from the last ball of Keith Dudgeon’s impressive opening over, which cost just a single.

It set the tone for what was to come, with Kent’s bowling and fielding keeping up the pressure on a Surrey batting line-up that simply could not cast off the shackles.

Ollie Pope swivel-pulled two fours in Dudgeon’s next over but on 10 drove Matt Milnes to mid on and when Sam Curran fell mis-hitting a Lintott long hop in the seventh over it did seem that everything was going Kent’s way.

Curran, the Surrey captain, had extra cover driven Milnes for four and then launched Dudgeon for an extraordinary short-armed six over long on.

But, from 40 for two after the powerplay, the innings fell away once Curran was brilliantly held inches from the turf by Harry Finch, diving forward as he ran in from deep mid wicket.

Jason Roy, who had laboured 21 balls for 18, clubbed Lintott to mid on – the bowler’s five dot balls to Laurie Evans then completing  a wicket maiden – and at halfway Surrey were 53 for four.

That soon became 53 for five, Evans hitting a full toss from Lintott to deep mid wicket, and only a four and big six from Tom Curran in Lintott’s final over spoiled his figures a little.

From 97 for five after 15 overs the Surrey innings petered out as Curran skied to mid off and Dan Lawrence was caught on the ropes for 16 aiming to club Fred Klaassen for six.

Jordan Clark was run out for four, after being sent back by Lawes, and Surrey’s day was summed up from the next ball when bowler Klaassen put down a fiercely-struck shot by Lawes but reacted quickly to run out non-striker Topley, who was backing up.

Lawes, who did scoop Klaassen for six over fine leg, was left 13 not out when last man Yousef Majid hit Dudgeon to mid on in the final over.

Kent Spitfires head coach, and former Surrey captain Adam Hollioake, said:

“I am really happy with that and with the way we played. It was our best all-round performance of the tournament so far.

“I’m pretty happy too that we saved it for my old club, and we really put it together today. It all clicked and it’s really good to do it here.

“But probably the most pleasing thing for me is that we showed that we can bounce back from a defeat [having lost to Essex on Friday night].

“Surrey all-rounder Tom Curran said: “We were beaten fair and square today and we will analyse a few things and come back in our next match.

“The games are coming thick and fast at the moment so we will have a look at everything and I think it’s striking a balance in the way we approach these matches.

“We’re not quite there at the moment but it’s something we’re aware of and playing Middlesex here [at the Kia Oval] on Wednesday night will be a great time to put a performance together.”

Picture supplied by Kent Cricket.