The Kent Spitfires are through to the Vitality Blast quarter-finals after a thrilling final evening at Canterbury.

The Spitfires eased to a seven-wicket win over Essex and thousands of fans stayed in the ground to watch Surrey’s nerve-shredding win over Sussex on the big screen, a result that confirmed Kent’s place in the top four.

Kent held Essex to 172 for six after they’d raced to 65 for nought after the powerplay. Paul Walter top-scored with 52 while Charlie Allison hit 48.

A 114-run partnership between, Tawanda Muyeye, who made 80 from 49 balls and Harry Finch, who hit 64 from 35, effectively won Kent the game before Sam Billings hit the winning runs with 16 balls to spare.

A crowd of 5,289 watched Kent initially struggle to contain Essex after putting them in, before Matt Parkinson got a desperately needed breakthrough when Michael Pepper reverse swept him to Klaassen for 28.

Jordan Cox couldn’t repeat his epic innings from Thursday night, bowled by Joey Evison for six and Parkinson bowled tightly to drag back the scoring rate.

Walter hit Denly straight to Harry Finch at square leg and it was 129 for 3 after 17. Gilchrist’s 18th went for 19 but got both Matt Critchley, who scooped him straight to Grant Stewart for 12, and Luc Benkenstein, who sliced him to Parkinson for six.

Allison hit Stewart to Leaning on the long on boundary in the final over, leaving the contest evenly poised at halfway.

Kent were 46 without loss after five overs when Walter came on at the Nackington Road end and took a wicket with his first ball, Daniel Bell-Drummond chipping him to Pepper. They eased to 82 for one at halfway, and Simon Harmer then came in for some punishment, Finch hitting him for successive sixes in an over that went for 19.

Kent were aided by some problematic fielding, including a pivotal moment in the 12th when Finch hit Walter to backward square leg and Noah Thain could only parry him over the rope for six.

Snater then bundled a routine stop over the rope for four and with Kent needing just 17 off the last five overs the chase was devoid of tension, although Muyeye holed out to Critchley and was caught by Benkenstein at the end of the 16th and Mohammad Amir then bowled Finch.

Denly and Sam Billings waited out Amir before the latter creamed Snater for six and hit his next delivery for two to see Kent home.

All eyes switched to the big-screen, which was showing the Surrey v Sussex game, with players and fans alike going through every possible emotion before they erupted when Chris Jordan took a wicket with the penultimate ball and it was finally confirmed they’d reached the last eight, for the first time since 2021.

Kent’s Harry Finch said: “When I came off there I was a little bit disappointed not to finish it off and then the first thing I saw when I walked off was Sussex needing, I think 30 off 24 balls, so straight away I thought it’s not going to happen.

“It’s a very special feeling, those scenes at the end there were like watching England in the World Cup, so it was pretty cool. It was the same pitch as the last game when we chased down 160 quite quickly, so we felt 180 was about par and that they were a little bit light. We pulled it back brilliantly after the powerplay so yeah we were always confident of chasing that, especially when you’ve got Tawanda and Daniel opening, you know you’re going to get off to a good start.

“To be honest I’ve worked really hard on my T20 game in the last few years, it’s no secret I’ve never been that good at it, never really worked on it, so something I really wanted to do when I moved to Kent was to start improving. I felt like there was enough of a game in there and a few obvious areas to work on, so I’ve reaped the rewards of those this year, started really well in the twos and when I got an opportunity in the first team I managed to show what I can do. I’m pleased with the way my games going but keep working hard, don’t rest on your laurels and chuck it all away.

“Getting into the quarters is great, we probably made it hard for ourselves in stages, played some brilliant cricket in this comp and some average cricket as well, but we know when we’re on it we’re as good as anyone in this comp, we really believe that.

“It’s always nice to play in the big games and it felt like the crowd were really behind us tonight, I think the fact we all ran out there before the first ball was bowled, it definitely felt a bit different. That was pretty cool, really cool.

“That was awesome (watching on the big screen with the fans.). As players you always feed off the crowd.”

On needing Surrey to win. “Up the Rey! I think a few of the lads in there were saying it’s the first time they’ve ever wanted Surrey to win (laughs). I’ve still got great feelings towards Sussex, there a really good team, I think it just shows in this group this year that everyone is beating everyone and the fact they managed to get that down to the last over, hats off to them, they’re a fantastic team.

“I just want to get better without getting too deep I feel I really wasted the first part of my career at Sussex, I probably had the talent but didn’t really apply it. I’m fortunate enough to get a second opportunity in the game and I don’t really want to waste it.”

Essex’s Chris Silverwood said: “It’s been a tough campaign for us, obviously we know that. We’ve had a couple of good individual performances in there and some rays of light, but I think overall it’s been a tough campaign for us.

“At half-time we thought if we bowl well we’ve got half a chance here. If you look at the average score at this ground they’re about 190 so maybe we were just a little bit light, but you’ve got to give Kent some credit there, there were eight overs when they went for 40 and they took a couple of wickets, which made life very difficult for us. Parky bowled well again, so to come back from there to get where we did, we sort of did all right.

“We saw Charlie try and pull us out and get us going again. As tough as it has been I think we’ve got to take the experiences from this and learn from them and moving forward just put plans in place to just keep developing. We’ve played a lot of youngsters at times and seen them step up at various given points so we’ll keep pushing them and like I say, learn from the experiences, so I wouldn’t say it’s a wasted campaign as such.”

Picture supplied by Kent Cricket.