Kent Spitfires suffered a third straight T20 Blast defeat against Gloucestershire at Canterbury on Sunday.
Attempting to defend a below-par score, away opening batsman Miles Hammond’s fine half-century meant that never looked likely as they won by nine wickets to move above Kent in the South group.
Spitfires lost the toss and were put into bat first. Spinner Matt Parkinson returned for Australian Charlie Stobo while fellow fast bowler Nathan Gilchrist made his home Kent T20 Blast bow.
After a measured start, Daniel Bell-Drummond clipped the final ball of the second over just over deep mid-wicket for the match’s first maximum at The Spitfire Ground.
Fellow opening batsman Zak Crawley attempted to follow suit in the next over but was well caught by the impressive Hammond at mid-on from David Payne (1-16) for seven as his poor form continued.
Joe Denly – promoted up the order – then tried to scoop over the wicketkeeper. But he just succeeded in finding Marchant de Lange at short fine leg from Josh Shaw’s bowling (1-19) to leave Kent 32-2 in the fifth over.
Marcus O’Riordan didn’t take long to find his rhythm with back-to-back boundaries to get the home side to 43-2 at the end of the powerplay.
But O’Riordan fell for a run-a-ball 12 to the first ball of the game delivered by Gloucestershire’s experienced South African spinner Graeme van Buuren (1-29).
Next to go for Kent was Bell-Drummond for 19. He was well caught at mid-off by Australian Cameron Bancroft off de Lange (1-24) to leave them 55-4 in the ninth over.
Spitfires had plenty of work to do at this stage but skipper Sam Billings moved them to 66-4 at the halfway stage with a reverse-swept four.
The 12th over saw Billings step on the gas with three consecutive fours and delivered two more boundaries in the following over.
He had put on 45 runs alongside Tawanda Muyeye before the latter was run-out for 10 after a mix-up and Billings himself added 36, only to smash Matt Taylor (3-30) up in the air to leave Kent 100-6.
Things went from bad to worse two balls later when all-rounder Grant Stewart was excellently caught by Hammond for a second-ball duck off the same bowler.
That brought together all-rounder Joey Evison and Australian overseas Xavier Bartlett, with quick running between the pair helping them to 116-7 in 18 overs in pursuit of a remotely competitive score.
But Evison, who played a nicely cover-driven four the ball previous, picked out Hammond from Taylor for 10.
Gilchrist’s dismissal for two just about summed up Kent’s innings. Nearly having done so a ball earlier, he was run-out by wicketkeeper James Bracey, attempting a run which was never on.
Parkinson had at least tried to get Bartlett – unbeaten on 12 – back on strike when he looked to scramble a bye as the ball went through to Bracey.
He was run-out, too, however, for a golden duck, and Spitfires were all out for 125 with a ball to spare in a dismal display.
The away side’s required run-rate was never likely to be much of an issue and Hammond crunched two boundaries off Gilchrist’s opening over (1-42) to get them to 14-0 after two overs.
Hammond made the most of a Gilchrist no-ball, smearing the free hit over the top and to the offside boundary for Gloucestershire’s first six, and backed that up with successive fours.
Stewart (0-12) bowled Kent’s second no-ball of the innings as he was pulled for four by Bancroft – albeit the free hit went for just a single – to leave the visitors 66-0 after their powerplay.
Hammond clubbed Bartlett (0-31) for six to bring up his 50 from 27 balls, while a single by Bancroft off Parkinson’s bowling (0-16) got the visitors to the 100-run mark in the ninth over.
With the finish line in sight, Hammond finally went for a superb 80 from 41 balls, caught by Stewart at long-off from Gilchrist.
But Bancroft did smash the winning runs when he slapped O’Riordan (0-24) over mid-wicket in the 12th over to finish unbeaten on 40 on a Father’s Day to forget on the field for the hosts.
Kent, now second-bottom, begin a run of two games in as many days when they Sussex Sharks at Hove on Thursday.
