Zak Crawley admitted his maiden T20 half-century left him with a slightly hollow feeling at Canterbury on Friday night.

The opener's career-best 59 looked to have helped set Kent up for a much-needed group win against Surrey only for the wheels to come off in the closing overs.

Crawley and Daniel Bell-Drummond (64) shared an opening stand of 115, but left to score 12 off the final over, Kent fell one run short of Surrey's 171-7 on 170-3.

Crawley described the result as 'gutting' and said he and the rest of the team were left thinking what else they could have done.

The 21-year-old explained "You try to get runs on the board so that you can win games, To lose the game by one run you always feel you could have done more, me personally.

"If someone gets two more runs then we win the game and that should have been me really.

"I maybe could have gone on and got a bigger score but I suppose everyone in the batting line-up is feeling like that.

"Even in the bowling line-up we should have kept them to 155, 160.

"That's the thing playing against Surrey they've got international players so it's never easy. Their death bowlers are very good, Jade Dernbach and Sam Curran, they're both international players, or have been in the past so it's not easy at all.

"It's easy to look back and say 'We should've done this, we should've done that' but they're a proper side with proper players. It can happen and it did."

Crawley felt Kent lost impetus in the closing overs, and left themselves with too much to do at the death.

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He explained: "It's a common theme in T20 cricket, or any cricket, you try and finish it an over early. We probably tried to finish it in the last over instead and it was too big an ask at the end.

"We probably lost wickets at the wrong time, me getting out, Deebs getting out, it's very tough for new batters.

"In hindsight maybe we conceded a few too many runs and did not bat well enough and one run is the difference so you can look at loads of different factors.

"If we'd have lost by 10 then I can see other angles, but to lose by one, it just seems so close.

"Why didn't I get two more runs? Why didn't Deebs get two more runs? Why didn't anyone get two more runs?

"It's just such a small margin, I keep thinking about it, we could all have done something for one run more."

Despite the defeat Kent are well placed to qualify for the last eight and Crawley remains confident ahead of the final two games, against Gloucestershire on Thursday, and Essex Friday.

He said: "All the counties are finishing strong, the last couple of times we've gone well in the group stages, and faltered in the quarter-finals so hopefully we're saving our best cricket for the last two games and the quarter-final if we get there.

"They're two decent sides but if we play anywhere near our best we'll win both those games.

"We wanted three out of three (before Surrey) but we're definitely trying to win the last two games.

"We're not going to rely on trying to win one and see if we can get through on run rate.

"In my head and I'm sure in everybody's else's heads we've got to win the last two games."