Overseas recruit Wes Agar believes Kent have enough quality in their squad to go far in the T20 Blast.

The 26-year-old was expected to play just two County Championship Division 1 games but now has extended his Canterbury stay for a further two months, making his T20 Blast bow for the Spitfires in a rain-affected defeat to Somerset on Tuesday.

It means Kent have lost two of their first three South group games, a run of form they’ll aim to end when they visit Glamorgan this Friday before hosting Surrey on Sunday.

Agar, who came into the side after fellow Australian bowler Kane Richardson was ruled out through illness, said: “We know we need to win games of cricket to stay alive in this competition.

“We saw glimpses out there, you saw Sam Billings hit some good balls out there in the middle. We’ve got firepower in the shed and you just have to go one game back when we made 180.

“That’s a score that wins you games of cricket more often than not.

“We’ve got it there, we just need to put all the pieces together.”

Somerset won by 13 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis Method.

The contest was marred by three rain interruptions, but Somerset eventually restricted Kent to 112 in pursuit of a revised target of 126 from 15 overs, Benny Green taking 3-19 and Lewis Gregory stifling the hosts when they needed 18 off the last over.

Somerset were all out for 154 from 20 overs, Tom Lammonby their highest scorer with 34.

Agar took 3-18 and Michael Hogan - on the day before his 42nd birthday - bagged 3-33 but the Spitfires were always behind the rate in reply despite Billings’ best knock of the season as he made 29.

Agar added: “It was stop-start and Twenty20 is a massive game of momentum and, when you’re trying to arrest that momentum, it makes it harder when you’re going out there to bat. Saying that, they bowled really well and we probably just didn’t match them.

“I think the new ball gripped well which made it difficult for new batters and it seemed to slow down a little bit in our innings. I think it was similar in their innings.

“But like I said, when you lose the momentum, it doesn’t help when you’re trying to go at 12 an over.”

After Kent chose to field, Tom Banton hit the first two balls for four but he was out for 12 when he skied Hogan to Jack Leaning, who took a juggling catch.

Tom Kohler-Cadmore smashed Joe Denly for 20 in the third over but, with Agar poised to bowl, the first rain delay came.

The players returned after a six-minute delay and Agar’s first ball as a Spitfire splayed Will Smeed’s stumps, bowling him for a duck.

After an 11-ball 23, Kohler-Cadmore was caught by Jordan Cox at mid-off off Hogan.

Joey Evison then removed Tom Abell for 11 with a full toss he inexplicably hit straight to Daniel Bell-Drummond at cover.

When Lammonby drove Grant Stewart for four in the ninth, it ended a spell of 6.2 overs without a boundary. But Stewart (2-21) then removed Gregory for 13, the victim of a superb diving catch by Hogan.

The 15th over went for 17 but Lammonby then tried to scoop Stewart and only succeeded in chipping him to Billings, before Green was bowled by Agar for 22.

In his 300th T20 match, Roelof van der Merwe gave Somerset something to bowl at but he had a let off when Cox nearly reproduced his miraculous relay catch from the 2021 Blast final between these sides.

Van der Merwe creamed Hogan to cow corner and, although Cox managed to parry the ball back behind the boundary, it was just out of Denly’s reach. He hit 12 from the next three deliveries but was then caught on the boundary by Leaning for 17.

Leaning sprinted to deep mid-wicket to snare former Spitfire Matt Henry for a golden duck off Agar and Peter Siddle was run-out off the last ball of the innings.

The target looked modest, but Somerset struck early in the chase. Tawanda Muyeye went for just five, miscuing Davey to Abell before Henry ripped out Denly’s off-stump.

Kent were on 37-2 when the rain returned in the sixth over and another half hour was lost.

When play resumed, Siddle bowled Bell-Drummond for 13 and van der Merwe had Cox caught by Henry for eight. Billings scooped Gregory for an elegant four but was bowled by the next ball.

A further delay left Kent needing 54 from 4.1 overs and, after a fleeting revival, Green bowled South African all-rounder George Linde for 13 and had Stewart caught by Lammonby for four.

Van der Merwe held a tough chance to remove Leaning for 10 off Siddle and Agar fell to a brilliant boundary catch by Henry.

Kent needed 18 from Gregory’s final over, but the first five balls yielded just four and Evison was caught by Lammonby off the last ball for 11.