Head coach Adam Hollioake has felt the frustration of Kent Spitfires’ poor Vitality Blast campaign.
After qualifying for the Blast knockout stages last year, Kent came up well short this time around.
They were fourth in the South Group, level on points with second-bottom Middlesex, after posting only four victories from 12 matches despite starting with three wins in their first four games.
Kent’s T20 season concluded in drab fashion through last Sunday’s 14-run defeat against Middlesex in Canterbury.
Hollioake conceded they were unable to successfully replace South African overseas all-rounder Dian Forrester, who played just three matches before he linked up with Texas Super Kings in Major League Cricket, while Tawanda Muyeye missed six games due to concussion protocols.
Reflecting on the Middlesex defeat, Hollioake said: “We just played poorly again. The idea is that we have played all the games with 100 per cent enthusiasm.
“We just haven’t played well and it doesn’t look very good. We haven’t been able to string together big partnerships.
“I don’t know how many 20-run and 30-run partnerships we have had – but we haven’t kicked on and had those 100-run partnerships that win you games. It’s something we have got to look at.
“It’s probably the most frustrating campaign I have had with Kent. This is my fifth one. Obviously, we had the Championship, the T20s and the One-Day Cup last year, and we’re up to our second one here.
“I’d say this has been the most frustrating because I genuinely thought we had a team that could perform well, especially with the way we started.
“We lost Dian Forrester and then Tawanda after that, and we weren’t good enough as a side to cope with the loss of them, and the loss in momentum and confidence that followed.
“It’s been a really frustrating campaign.”
Hollioake felt on-loan spinner Jake Lintott and 26-year-old Forrester – in the three matches he played – helped make Kent a stronger outfit in 2026.
But the Spitfires were unable to replicate the top-order success they enjoyed last season.
“Those two guys filled a hole,” he said. “We were an average side last year.
“When I say that, I don’t mean we were ‘average’ as in ‘poor’ – we were just average. I thought we over-achieved to reach the quarter-finals. I thought those two guys filled a hole.
“The spinner in Jake Lintott and Dian, the left-handed hitter down the order, those guys filled an area where we weren’t particularly amazing last year – we definitely weren’t poor – but they were a step up.
“But we fell down in other areas. Our top-order batting last year was outstanding and, this year, we just haven’t quite got off to those starts. Finishing the game, there have been a number of times where we have been in a 50-50 position to win a game, with 10 overs to go.
“But for whatever reason, we haven’t been able to get across the line. It’s a lot of things.
“I’d love to say it’s just one player, one bowler or one batter, but there are quite a few areas in which we have let ourselves down.”
Skipper Sam Billings was particularly bullish as he described the performance in a nine-wicket defeat to Surrey “gutless and genuinely embarrassing” last Friday.
Hollioake responded: “I’m not actually sure what he said but I can’t imagine he was swinging from the chandeliers with happiness!
“He’s a competitive guy, as am I, and we don’t like losing. There are quite a lot of things we didn’t do right.
“The frustrating thing is we started the competition off doing them well – and that probably makes it more frustrating.
“If we had been poor the whole way through, you would understand it. What is frustrating is I feel we have got on a bit of a downer and we have carried that on.
“In the Championship, it’s been the opposite. We started off poorly and we have been able to turn it around.”
Kent have a 12-day break before they begin their One-Day Cup campaign against Northamptonshire Steelbacks in Canterbury next Friday.
Hollioake intends to sit down with Billings and the county’s hierarchy to do a full debrief on their T20 campaign before then.
“I think you guys know me,” he added. “You know I’m not going to let it sit.
“We will address it straight away. That’s the way we do things.
“When I came in, I said we would address things – good or bad – after the game. Whatever we are doing wrong, we’ll try to put it right.
“Even if we’re winning, we like to address things and learn from the things that we are doing right. This will be no different.
“We will look at what we are doing wrong and then try to put things in place to fix it. That’s what we did last year. We thought we were moving in the right direction but, hey, that’s sport.
“I guess that’s what we love about it – apart from in these sorts of situations when we are losing!”
