Kent Spitfires skipper Sam Billings has urged his side to “move on” after a heavy Vitality Blast home loss to Essex on Friday night.
Spitfires faltered with the ball after being put into bat and their meagre total of 129-9 was never likely to be defendable.
It was a first Blast win of the campaign for Essex and a first defeat for the Spitfires, who will aim to bounce back at The Oval against Surrey on Sunday.
Billings said: “It was one of those days. T20 is a pretty fickle game at the best of times, and on the back of probably one of the better wins that we’ve had as a T20 team on Monday, obviously, tonight was just the complete opposite.
“(It’s) just one of those things, you kind of draw a line under it pretty quickly, and you move on to Surrey. We play some brilliant cricket the first two games and it’s just a real shame, because it was a great crowd.
“It felt like it was set up for a great evening, and the wicket wasn’t as good as it normally is here, probably, but we didn’t adapt well enough.
“And any time you’re four or five down early you really need miracle to get it out of that. So, like I said, just one of those things and we’ve got to move on and try and look forward to Sunday at the Oval.”
Opting to bowl first, Essex removed Tawanda Muyeye for one in the second over, when he pulled Charlie Bennett to Luc Benkenstein at deep backward square and Zak Crawley went in the next over for seven, driving Shane Snater straight to Wiaan Mulder.
Sam Billings went for eight in the fourth, ramping Zaman Akhter straight to Bennett and when Daniel Bell-Drummond charged down the wicket to Mulder he was caught behind for 13, Kent were 30-4 – and there were still two balls left of the powerplay.
Joe Denly briefly got the crowd going when he pulled Mulder for six, but Mulder bowled him two balls later for 14.
Simon Harmer’s 12th over was a maiden and scoring was painfully slow, until the 15th, which went for 14. However, Jake Lintott skied Bennett to Pepper for 18, Dian Forrester (34) hit Bennett (3-25) to Paul Walter at short fine leg and Tom Rogers made just seven before he lofted Mulder (3-26) to Luc Benkenstein.
Matt Milnes hit a couple of fours in the 19th and Fred Klaassen then heaved Snater for a six, only to be caught by Walter off the next ball for eight.
In reply, opener Michael Pepper hit 64, including three sixes and six fours, and Paul Walter an unbeaten 42 as Essex chased down the target with 6.2 overs to spare.
On the rare occasions when they played false shots the ball never landed near a fielder: When Pepper hit Matt Parkinson for four through extra cover to reach his half-century any lingering doubt about the outcome had been extinguished.
Rogers (1-31) had Pepper caught behind trying a ramp to leave Essex 110-1 in the 12th. Billings then dropped Charlie Allison when he gloved the next ball.
Allison used the reprieve to hit the winning runs with more than six overs to spare, pulling Klaassen for four as he finished unbeaten on 18.
Report via ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
