Kent Spitfires (206-7) lose to Somerset (221-7) by 15 runs as Spitfires are knocked out of the T20 Blast

Kent Spitfires missed out on a T20 Blast Quarter-Final spot as they lost away to South Group winners Somerset on Sunday.

With Essex Eagles having beaten Surrey earlier in the day to move into fourth position, Kent knew they had to win the televised game in order to progress to the knockout stages.

Spitfires, who were without tournament top run-scorer Daniel Bell-Drummond and experienced players Joe Denly, Wes Agar, Fred Klaassen and Kane Richardson, won the toss and elected to field.

Will Smeed led the assault by the home side with 61 off 28 balls, while former Kent batsman Sean Dickson (41), Lewis Gregory (37) and Tom Kohler-Cadmore (31) made contributions to a score of 221-7.

Italian international all-rounder Grant Stewart claimed 4-48 but left-arm spinner George Linde was the pick of the Kent bowlers with 2-25.

In reply, Kent could only post 206-7, Joey Evison cracking 46 off 24 balls, Jack Leaning 41 and skipper Sam Billings 36.

Billings said: “We fancied chasing 222 but, even in defeat, I'm really proud of the lads, losing by only 15 runs to a very good side.

“Somerset have three international bowlers in their team and it showed tonight. Of course, we took notice of the Essex result earlier but, even before that, we felt we could come here and win.

“Four or five injuries have taken a toll. So, while we are very disappointed to miss out on the Quarter-Finals, we can take a lot from how we played.

“Daniel Bell-Drummond and Joe Denly were huge losses for us.”

Despite the visitors claiming the early wicket of Tom Banton, caught and bowled off a waist-high Stewart delivery, Somerset made 63 runs inside the powerplay.

Smeed was soon taking advantage of a true batting pitch with a short boundary on the town side at