Kent captain Sam Billings offered no excuses after the winless T20 Blast holders suffered their fourth defeat in as many games on Wednesday night.

Spitfires struggled with the bat and limped their way to 114, thanks largely to Jordan Cox's 48, before Gloucestershire overcame an early wobble to ease home with more than five overs to spare.

Billings said: "It was a poor pitch, and there's no getting away from that. But there are no excuses - we didn't execute our skills well enough and that's been a recurring theme this season.

"Had we made 140, we would have been right in the game, but we fell short and lost too many wickets early on.

"We know what to expect when we come here, yet we keep falling into the same trap.

"I had to take a gamble with the ball and try for early wickets, because they were always going to win the game easily if they batted their 20 overs. Had we got Glenn Phillips out early, then who knows."

David Payne returned impressive figures of 4-15, including a burst of three wickets in four balls, as Kent were bowled out for 114 in 19.3 overs in the Vitality Blast clash.

Fellow seamer Zak Chappell claimed 3-24 and slow left armer Tom Smith weighed in with 2-22 as Gloucestershire exerted a stranglehold in the field to make it two wins from four outings in the short format. Only Cox mustered any real kind of resistance, the 21-year-old forging an innings of 48 from 47 balls, with a six and four fours.

Gloucestershire's chase was initially hampered by the loss of early wickets, but overseas star Glenn Phillips eventually took a firm grip on proceedings, smashing an unbeaten 50 from 31 balls with four fours and three sixes. Jack Taylor also played his part, making 31 from 21 balls in an unbroken stand of 70 for the fifth wicket.

Having previously struggled to exert control with the new ball in Blast cricket this season, Gloucestershire's bowlers hit their straps. Payne opened up with a wicket maiden, persuading Joe Denly to sky a catch to Ian Cockbain at backward square leg and immediately justify the decision to insert Kent.

Making the most of a dry pitch to extract turn, slow left armer Tom Smith accounted for Daniel Bell-Drummond, who drove uppishly to mid-off, at which point the visitors had lost both openers inside four overs and surrendered the initiative.

Billings threatened to break loose after the powerplay yielded just 36 runs, the former England man using the reverse sweep and paddle shots to good effect to race to 22 from 18 balls. But when he attempted to sweep Chappell, Billings could only top-edge to Smith at deep fine leg with the score on 56 in the ninth over.

Smith pinned Alex Blake in front without scoring to finish with 2-22 from four overs, while Benny Howell also kept things tight in the middle, conceding just 20 runs as the visitors limped to 59-4 at halfway.

Jack Leaning nicked behind and George Linde holed out to long-off, both off the bowling of Chappell.

Cox remained Kent's last hope of posting a challenging total, but the return of Payne at the Ashley Down Road end swung the contest in Gloucestershire's favour. The experienced left-armer had Cox caught behind for 48 - the ball after he hit a six.

Grant Stewart went in identical fashion from the next ball and Payne then induced Qais Ahmad to hit to deep mid-wicket.

Matt Milnes became the fourth batsman to be caught by wicketkeeper James Bracey as Ryan Higgins cut the innings short with three balls unused.

In reply, Stewart accounted for Miles Hammond and Ian Cockbain in successive deliveries in the second over. When Bracey mis-timed a drive and hoisted Milnes to cover, the hosts were 35-3 at the end of the powerplay.

Higgins was next to go for eight, smacking a delivery from Linde straight to backward point as Gloucestershire slipped to 46-4 in the eighth over. But Phillips continued to carry the fight to Kent, the New Zealand international smiting Ahmad for a huge straight six and then pulling him for four later in the same over as he began to dominate.

He found a willing ally in Taylor, who located the gaps to rotate the strike, Gloucestershire's captain playing an effective second fiddle. Both helped themselves to two boundaries apiece in a Fred Klaassen over that leaked 17 runs, and victory was assured in the 15th over as Phillips struck successive sixes off Linde to bring up his half-century.