The Kent Spitfires have handed the Hampshire Hawks their first defeat of the Vitality Blast season, pummelling them by eight wickets at Canterbury.

The Hawks had the misfortune to run into a fully armed and operational Zak Crawley: the England man hit 75 off 43 balls, including three sixes and he enjoyed a stand of 110 with Daniel Bell-Drummond, who made 61 from 40.

Earlier Joe Weatherley hit an unbeaten 63 as Hampshire recovered from 63 for 4 to post 177 for seven, with Tom Rogers posting Kent’s best figures with 3 for 33, but as soon as Kent took 22 from the 11th over they looked favourites and they coasted home with an over to spare.

Hampshire chose to bat but lost James Vince in the second over, caught by Wes Agar off Tom Rogers for six after a miscue.

Fred Klaassen then got Tom Prest for a four-ball duck, Crawley taking a dolly at mid-wicket and Toby Albert then pulled Rogers straight to Tawanda Muyeye at square leg for 18.

Dewald Brevis hit the first six when he drove Grant Stewart back over his head and he hit two more before holing out to Parkinson and getting caught by Rogers on the long on boundary for 24.

Weatherley and James Fuller shifted the momentum by putting on 49 for the next wicket and although the latter was lbw to Joe Denly at the end of the 13th, Benny Howell kept up the pressure.

Kent could have run out either batter in the 16th but somehow got neither and Weatherley pulled Stewart for four to pass fifty, before a couple of late wickets slowed the scoring rate: Agar got Howell for 23 at the end of the 19th, caught on the boundary by Jack Leaning, and Rogers had Chris Wood caught and bowled for nought in the final over.

Kent’s reply started relatively slowly and they lost Tawanda Muyeye for 20 in the fifth over, when he skied Wood to Vince. It was 45 for one after the powerplay and 75 for one at halfway, but at this point Crawley decided to accelerate, hitting Turner for a six into the Nackington Road hedge, then another onto a top floor balcony on the Old Dover Road. He followed that with two fours and creamed Scott Currie through backward point to reach his half-century.

Bell-Drummond passed the same milestone with a towering six over cow corner over Wood, but he finally went in the same over, the 15th, to a stunning catch by Bjorn Fortuin, who cover 25 yards before somehow clinging on.

The Spitfires still needed 16 from the last two, but Crawley dropped to one knee and swept Currie’s first two balls for six and four, leaving Denly to seal the win with a violent six over cow corner off the final ball of the over.

Kent’s Zak Crawley said: “Deebs (Bell-Drummond) played really well to take a lot of the pressure off me and we knew that with the short side and the wind we didn’t have to panic too much when we were behind early if we could get a couple of big overs and that’s how it turned out.

“Deebs played a really good innings there and I just kind of stayed with him. We speak a lot at Canterbury about this, you can always get forty off a couple of overs and that’s what happened here today.

“So we always felt like we were in the game. We probably didn’t do that as well the other night against Surrey when we probably could have held back a little bit longer so to correct that mistake and finish it off was good.

“We spoke in the middle about (bowlers) that might suit us a little more bit than others, so we went for those overs a little bit more and felt like we were in control of it.

“Hitting that way to the short side is just so much easier. When you’re chasing nines like that, it’s almost like you’re chasing 11s and sevens. That’s how we try and look at it in our heads. I thought if I can get 11 off the second last over we’d only need five off the last one, but in the end we finished it off early.

“We always knew it was a short way down the hill there so we weren’t panicking. We were really looking forward to this game, we knew they were a good side and that we were going to have to be at our best. I think the bowlers started brilliantly and that helped. They’ve got a lot of top players at the top of their order and we managed to hold them. They actually batted really well and got to a total that we thought was going to be quite challenging at halfway and thankfully it proved a decent wicket.

“I’ll be watching every game while I’m with England and I’m quietly confident about our chances this year of going a long way. It’s a very hard competition to win, there’s so many good teams and anyone can beat anyone but I feel like we’ve got a good team and hopefully we can go a long way.”

Hampshire’s Joe Weatherly said: “Sometimes you’ve got to take your hat off to the opposition, they played beautifully and kept wickets in hand, which was probably the difference. It was a really good wicket as you expect here and it’s a difficult place to come.

“Their top order is strong so we need to take early wickets and unfortunately we weren’t able to do so. It’s been really good start (to the Blast) but it just wasn’t to be this afternoon.

“There was a short side in play and the wind was going to that side all day so they did it really well, probably better than us. They had wickets in hand and as I say, sometimes you take your hat off. They’re quality players and they played well.”

(Were they happy with 177?) “Firstly the guys have played so well up top, but there was always going to be a game where we lost a couple and that was today. From then it was a case of trying to score without losing wickets and still trying to be positive. It was probably par, no more than par, it was a good wicket so we didn’t want to blow up complete but I think that was probably a par score and we didn’t quite capitalise at the end just on the short side. If we’d got 190 then with scoreboard pressure, who knows.

(On his knock) “It was nice, obviously opportunities have been slim, the guys at the top have played beautifully. We wanted it to be in a winning course but we’ve started well in this competition, a lot better than previous years as we’ve mentioned so if you look at the first four fixtures, we’ve won three and I think we would have taken that. We’ll dust ourselves down, we’ve got a bit of a break now and we’ll go again at home on Friday.”