HITTING sixes ought to be the name of the game in the Twenty20 Cup but Spitfires scored an unwanted half-dozen in Friday’s 23 run defeat to Surrey Lions.

In front of a sell-out 20,041 Oval crowd – the largest to watch a domestic game at the Kennington Test venue in over 50 years – Kent’s tactics and skills were again found wanting.

Ultimately it was the bowling Nyan Doshi with four for 27 in three overs and a stunning unbeaten 52 from 26 balls from Scott Newman that separated the Surrey men from the Matt Walker’s boys.

Surrey went on the rampage after electing to bat first to score 167 for six having opened up with a brisk opening stand of 33 between James Benning and Ali Brown.

Brown took one risk too many to be bowled by the re-called Martin Saggers after slogging 29 from 10 balls, but a 45-minute rain delay broke concentration and reduced the game to 15 overs a side.

The interruption ought to have worked in Kent’s favour but Surrey went in to show why they have reached the first two finals in this hugely popular form of the game.

Jonathan Batty (17), Azhar Mahmood (23) and Tim Murtagh all made vital contributions but it was Newman’s late hitting with successive sixes off Simon Cook that took the game out of Kent’s reach.

To their credit Spitfires’ openers Matthew Walker (21) and Andrew Hall, with 39 from 32 balls, made a decent fist of the reply with a stand of 47, but the introduction of Doshi took the sting out of the response.

Walker, Key (7), Darren Stevens (15) and Martin van Jaarsveld (12) fell for the addition of 37 as Doshi tore the heart out of Kent’s top order.

Former Surrey batsman Michael Carberry continued his decent run of form with 23, but when he was caught in the deep of Benning and Hall fell to the wiles of Harbhajan Singh Kent’s chances were gone.

Justin Kemp, whose bowling shows signs of improvement, again failed with the bat ensuring that the efforts of James Tredwell (10) and Cook (11) only served to massage the ultimate margin of defeat.

Kent wrap up their horrendous Twenty20 campaign at St Lawrence with the visits of Sussex and Essex on Tuesday, July 5, and Wednesday, July 6.