Joe Denly admitted Kent did not put enough runs on the board in their defeat to Sussex in their opening Royal London One-Day Cup match.

The Spitfires were bowled out for 188 batting first at Hove and the Sharks chased down their target with seven wickets to spare.

This gave Kent’s bowlers the unenviable task of defending a below-par total and could not put the Sussex batters under pressure.

Daniel Bell-Drummond was the standout performer for the visitors reaching 90 before he was the last man out.

Denly, who is captaining the side in Sam Billings' absence, said: “I never thought we had enough runs on the board. Losing early wickets set us back a bit and we were losing wickets throughout the innings.

“No one was able to stick around with Daniel and build any kind of partnership and take it deep into the innings.

“We weren’t able to build pressure during the innings and ultimately didn’t have enough runs on the board. We got early wickets but couldn’t build on that and fair play to Luke Wells he played brilliantly.”

Denly won the toss and chose to bat in the sunshine at Hove. Wickets then consistently fell through the Kent innings with just Bell-Drummond and Alex Blake the only batters to reach double figures.

Denly said: “I thought it looked like a good wicket. Maybe I’m not very good at reading pitches either and maybe we could have bowled first.

“I thought it looked like good conditions and the sun was out. I thought posting a good score on the board and putting them under some pressure would be a good way to go. We just weren’t able to do that.”

Bell-Drummond continues his good One-Day form and averages 67 from his last nine innings.

Kent will be looking to bounce back immediately and they have the chance to do this at Radlett on Sunday against Middlesex.

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Denly said: “We have some very fine One-Day players in our team so we were just a bit disappointed that no one could go on with Daniel and build that big partnership with wickets in hand for that last powerplay to go big.

“Daniel’s carrying on his form from last year and it is great for him to finally be back in the runs. Hopefully we can build on that for the next game. They come thick and fast now. We are going to have to be better.

“We will have a chat now and have a regroup and go again on Sunday. It’s only one game and we won’t get too carried away with being disappointed.”