Kent march into quarter-finals with tense win over Essex

The Kent Spitfires are through to the Vitality Blast quarter-finals after a thrilling final evening at Canterbury.

The Spitfires eased to a seven-wicket win over Essex and thousands of fans stayed in the ground to watch Surrey's nerve-shredding win over Sussex on the big screen, a result that confirmed Kent's place in the top four.

Kent held Essex to 172 for six after they'd raced to 65 for nought after the powerplay. Paul Walter top-scored with 52 while Charlie Allison hit 48.

A 114-run partnership between Tawanda Muyeye, who made 80 from 49 balls and Harry Finch, who hit 64 from 35, effectively won Kent the game before Sam Billings hit the winning runs with 16 balls to spare.

A crowd of 5,289 watched Kent initially struggle to contain Essex after putting them in, before Matt Parkinson got a desperately needed breakthrough when Michael Pepper reverse swept him to Klaassen for 28.

Jordan Cox couldn't repeat his epic innings from Thursday night, bowled by Joey Evison for six and Parkinson bowled tightly to drag back the scoring rate. Walter hit Denly straight to Harry Finch at square leg and it was 129 for 3 after 17. Gilchrist's 18th went for 19 but got both Matt Critchley, who scooped him straight to Grant Stewart for 12, and Luc Benkenstein, who sliced him to Parkinson for six.

Allison hit Stewart to Leaning on the long on boundary in the final over, leaving the contest evenly poised at halfway.

Kent were 46 without loss after five overs when Walter came on at the Nackington Road end and took a wicket with his first ball, Daniel Bell-Drummond chipping him to Pepper. They eased to 82 for one at halfway, and Simon Harmer then came in for some punishment, Finch hitting him for successive sixes in an over that went for 19.

Kent were aided by some problematic fielding, including a pivotal moment in the 12th when Finch hit Walter to backward square leg and Noah Thain could only parry him over the rope for six.

Snater then bundled a routine stop over the rope for four and with Kent needing just 17 off the last five overs the chase was devoid of tension, although Muyeye holed out to Critchley and was caught by Benkenstein at the end of the 16th and Mohammad Amir then bowled Finch.

Denly and Sam Billings waited out Amir before the latter creamed Snater for six and hit his next delivery for two to see Kent home.

All eyes switched to the big-screen, which was showing the Surrey v Sussex game, with players and fans alike going through every possible emotion before they erupted when Chris Jordan took a wicket with the penultimate ball and it was finally confirmed they'd reached the last eight, for the first time since 2021.