Kent Spitfires hopes of a NatWest T20 Blast quarter-final place were ended once and for all after a thumping, 63-run defeat against Essex Eagles.

With three group games remaining in the competition, the Spitfires were well aware that they needed victories from all three to stand any chance of progression, but they found themselves blown away by a powerful Essex side on a sunny Colchester afternoon.

The Eagles demolished the Spitfires with a 63-run margin of victory, and secured their own quarter-final place in the process having dominated the South Group so far with nine wins from their 10 games.

Tom Westley hit the first T20 century of his career – a brilliant 105 from 58 balls, as Essex posted a daunting 209-5 from their 20 overs after being put in by Kent captain Rob Key.

The Spitfires mustered a total of just 146 all out in reply; Sam Northeast top-scoring with 41 as Jesse Ryder took 5-27, and Kent dismissed with 17 balls of their innings remaining.

The afternoon had started so well for Kent as they picked up two wickets in the first seven balls, reducing Essex to 2-2 as Mark Pettini (0) and Ryder (1) both fell early.

That was about as good as it got for the Spitfires, unfortunately, as Westley came to the crease and peppered all corners of the boundary. He brought up the second half-century of his T20 career from just  33 balls as he put on 92 in 10.3 overs for the third-wicket alongside Ravi Bopara.

Bopara made a run-a-ball 23 before holing out to the boundary off Adam Riley; the off-spinner recalled to the side in place of Adam Ball in the only change to the XI who defeated Sussex last night.

The vast majority of the Kent bowling attack continued to be blasted around the Castle Park outfield, Westley moving to his maiden T20 hundred from only 55 balls with the sixth six of his innings, to go alongside the 10 fours.

He eventually departed for 105 (his previous T20 best having been 55*) when he top-edged Claydon in the 17th over, at which stage he had helped his side to 166-4.

The carnage was far from over, however. Ben Harmison was called upon by skipper Key to deliver the final six balls, despite his first two overs having cost 30 runs, and he saw himself brutally attacked by home skipper Ryan ten Doeschate.

The former-Dutch international took an incredible 32 runs from the final over, including four sixes (one off a no-ball) and a four. He had made 37 from just 15 balls when he holed out to the final ball of the innings, having helped his side to 209-5 from their 20-over allocation, leaving Harmison with figures of 3-0-62-1, and James Foster not out on 36 at the other end.

Kent’s mammoth chase of the 210 required to win never really got going as three wickets were lost inside as many overs.

Daniel Bell-Drummond (4), Rob Key (1) and Fabian Cowdrey (1) all fell cheaply, while Alex Blake looked in decent touch, making 29 from 16 before becoming the impressive Ryder’s first victim.

Darren Stevens hit off-spinner Tim Phillips for three consecutive boundaries before holing out for 19 shortly before the halfway stage of the Kent innings, while Northeast made 41 from 32 balls before being stumped by the slow bowler.

The Spitfires actually remained there or thereabouts with the run rate, but lost wickets far too regularly.

Sam Billings hit Greg Smith for three consecutive sixes in a bright, 10-ball 25 before he fell to Ryder’s medium pace; the first of three wickets the New Zealander picked up in his third over, with James Tredwell (1) and Claydon (0) also failing to have any impact with the game already well up by this stage.

With Riley the last man out in the 16th over to give Ryder his five-wicket haul, the Eagles were left to celebrate their confirmed quarter-final spot, while Kent were left to think of what might have been, having come out on the wrong side of a number of close finishes in their T20 Blast games earlier this season.

Today’s match, however, was anything but close, with the Spitfires downed by the better team.

 

Essex Eagles vs. Kent Spitfires, NatWest T20 Blast, South Group, Castle Park, Colchester, 12 June 2014:

Essex Eagles 209-5 (Westley 105, ten Doeschate 37, Foster 36 not out) beat Kent Spitfires 146 all out (Northeast 41; Ryder 5-27) by 63 runs

 

Essex Eagles: Pettini, Ryder, Westley, Bopara, Foakes, ten Doeschate*, Foster†, Smith, Napier, Phillips, Salisbury

Kent Spitfires: Bell-Drummond, Key*, Northeast, Cowdrey, Blake, Stevens, Billings†, Harmison, Tredwell, Claydon, Riley

Kent Spitfires won the toss and elected to bowl

 

Points: Essex Eagles 2, Kent Spitfires 0

Full scorecard available here