Daniel Bell-Drummond scores century and Grant Stewart takes a hat-trick as Kent Spitfires (228-3) beat Middlesex (173) in T20 Blast

Kent Spitfires moved into the top four in the Vitality Blast South Group thanks to a brilliant Daniel Bell-Drummond century against Middlesex on Friday night.

Bell-Drummond’s 111 off just 58 balls, which included four sixes, helped Spitfires post 228-3 on a warm evening at Canterbury, before they restricted Middlesex to 173 all out on their way to a sixth successive victory in the competition.

In front of a sold-out crowd in excess of 5,000, Bell-Drummond became the first Spitfires player to score a T20 ton this summer, taking his tally in 12 matches to 587 runs in the process at an average of 58.70.

Bell-Drummond said: “The key was keeping it simple and doing the basics well. Obviously we got off to a nice start once we knew we were batting first.

“Middlesex came off a brilliant win yesterday so they will have been high, but it was just a case of making sure we stuck to our strengths.

“It means everything to make a hundred, playing in front of a home crowd and it’s been a while since my last one. I felt really good coming in, I had some good form. It was a lovely wicket, I made the most of it and hopefully we can keep going from strength to strength in this tournament.

“We knew they were going to come hard, chasing a big total, but the first three overs went for 10 I think and they just really didn’t get going. Five games into the T20 we wouldn’t have guessed we’d be in this position.

“I know our guys were on it 100 per cent and I always backed us as favourites and of course anyone can get close, including them, but we backed ourselves to defend it and weren’t too worried.”

Middlesex enjoyed a record-breaking chase at Surrey just 24 hours earlier but there was to be no repeat as Grant Stewart took a hat-trick on a