Essex v Kent

Spitfires moved to the top of the Friends Provident Trophy South East qualifying division by sweeping to a 106-run win in Chelmsford over previously unbeaten Essex Eagles.

Kent batted responsibly on a tricky pitch to post 230-7 and then bowled good lines to skittle the hosts out for 124 inside 26 overs to secure their fourth successive Trophy win.

It was Kent's all-Pakistan new ball attack of Yasir Arafat and Azhar Mahmood who reaped havoc to reduce Essex to 42-5 within 10 overs of the start of the reply.

The first five all went leg before, four of them palpably so as the Spitfires' seamers nipped the ball around off the seam.

Arafat took two in his first over, Mark Pettini, who scored 119 in the reverse fixture at Canterbury, went for one, then from the last ball of the over Bopara, who hit 99 in that same April game, fell first ball when jumping across his stumps to fend away a lifting ball.

Jason Gallian (24) was snared by a low off-cutter from Mahmood, then Arafat trapped two more; Grant Flower (5) and James Foster (0) after both attempted to work across the line of decent length deliveries.

The run of lbws ended when Ryan ten Doeschate (14) chased a wide one from Simon Cook to edge to Geraint Jones then, nine runs on, James Middlebrook (2) leant back to cut a lifting ball from Robbie Joseph only to pick out Justin Kemp at slip to make it 61-7.

Graham Napier (23) lifted the gloom amongst a despondent crowd of 2,000 with some lusty hitting only to pick out Arafat at deep square-leg when attempting a pull shot against Joseph.

David Masters and Chris Wright at least took the home total into three-figures until Wright (23) tried to flick leg-side against Cook to become the sixth leg-before victim of the night.

Last man Andre Nel clubbed one six, but then heaved across the line to Joseph to be caught off a skier by Jones and complete the game by 8.26pm.

Arafat took 4-24, Cook 2-35, Joseph 3-30 and Mahmood 1-24 as Kent avenged their 31-run defeat to Essex back in April in some considerable style.

After a racing start, Kent's batsmen found run-scoring and boundary hitting increasingly difficult and only a late burst of 45 runs in the last five overs gave the visitors what appeared a defendable total.

With the new, shiny ball coming onto the bat openers Rob Key and Joe Denly were able to drive through the line and pick off some attractive boundaries in posting 50 inside 11 overs.

But, with the gloss and hardness off the ball, the light fading and the floodlights on by 4pm, shot-making became more and more difficult.

The introduction of medium-paced seamer Napier put the brakes on Spitfires' innings as the burly all-rounder bagged two wickets in as many balls and 3-29 in all.

Denly (28), in attempting to run the ball down to third man, found a thick edge to the diving Foster then Martin van Jaarsveld, as can be his wont, was caught on the crease by a full length in-ducker to go leg before for his third golden duck of the season.

Key, becalmed after the loss of two wickets, was next to go for 41, pushing at a Napier off-cutter he walked off shaking at the pitch having had middle stump removed.

There were no boundaries for 11 overs as Napier, gave way at the Hayes Close End by Bopara who took the next three wickets to finish with 3-49.

Darren Stevens (17) fell leg-before working across the line but Kemp showed more resilience to eek out an 83-ball half century with only three fours until he holed out to David Masters at deep mid-wicket.

Jones also struggled for timing and to hit boundaries and, having reached 23, lost his off stump when trying to force through the off-side.

With only four overs remaining Azhar Mahmood (10) posted the only six of the innings over third man from a lucky thick edge, but was run out by the bowler Andre Nel in his follow-through after being called for a chancy single by James Tredwell.