Kent were beaten by Sussex in the first match of the 2018 Royal London One-Day Cup.

Daniel Bell-Drummond’s 90 was the only standout performance from the Spitfires at Hove as they lost by seven wickets.

The visiting side posted 188 batting first and Sussex made it look easy chasing down the runs with overs and wickets to spare.

Luke Wells put in a man-of-the-match worthy performance taking 2-30 off 10 overs and then scored 62 opening the batting.

Kent skipper Joe Denly won the toss and chose to bat but soon may have been regretting that decision when he was bowled by Ishant Sharma for a duck after facing four balls.

Zak Crawley (5) and Heino Kuhn (6) quickly followed to leave the Spitfires in a bit of trouble on 25-3.

At the end of the first powerplay Kent were 42-3 after some consolidation work by Bell-Drummond and Alex Blake.

They put on a partnership of 85 before Blake was out LBW to Wells for 29 trying to reverse sweep the spinner.

Wickets steadily fell through the Kent innings with Bell-Drummond anchoring one end while he watched his teammates get out.

He played superbly for his 90 off 115 balls before he was the last man out.

Kent could only reach 188 and were bowled out in 43.3 overs. Spinners Danny Briggs and Luke Wells kept it tight in the middle overs taking 3-23 and 2-30 respectively off each of their 10 overs.

Kent put some early pressure on the Sussex batters with a wicket each for Mitch Claydon and Matt Henry to put them 19-2.

Luke Wells (62) and captain Ben Brown (73*) then dug in to put on a 111 partnership to put the home side in a strong position.

Laurie Evans then came in and made 38 off 45 balls to help see Sussex home.

Henry the pick of the Kent bowlers with 2-30 from eight overs.