Kent remain alive in NatWest T20 Blast after a thrilling win at Essex in a record-breaking run riot at Chelmsford on Thursday night.

Kent lost the toss and were put in to bat on a flat Chelmsford track with short boundaries and what followed will go down in Battle of the Bridge folklore.

Spitfires openers Joe Denly and Daniel Bell-Drummond shared a world record opening stand of 207, amassed using all but nine balls of the 20 overs to silence the Essex support, hoping for a win to keep their own quarter-final hopes alive.

Denly was the man to go for an incredible 127 - Kent's highest ever T20 score and his third century in the format, another club best.

He cracked seven sixes and 11 fours in an innings of just 66 balls to beat his own Kent record score of 116.

The partnership was the third highest for any wicket in the history of the competition and beat the 163 the pair put on earlier in the season against Surrey at the Oval which is the club record for any wicket.

Bell-Drummond might have been a supporting act but he finished with a superb unbeaten 80 from 49 balls, with seven fours and two maximums of his own with 8 from Sam Billings and a single from Sam Northeast helping Kent to post 221-2 - a total which just proved enough to record consecutive wins for the first time this season.

Needing more than 11 an over to win, the hosts flew out of the blocks themselves, posting 118 from the first 8.2 overs before Dan Lawrence was yorked by Calum Haggett for 41 from 22 balls.

Haggett ended with a superb 1-18 from his four overs which ultimately proved the difference.

Lawrence opening partner Varun Chopra continued to blaze away but Imran Qayyum came on to stem the tide and got Ravi Bopara to hole-out to Mitch Claydon for 11.

At 137-2 with 8.2 overs remaining the hosts still looked the favourites but Darren Stevens had Ashar Zaidi caught by Qayyum with 69 still needed from 38 balls.

Chopra brought up his own century with his eighth six, in a costly over from Jimmy Neesham which went for 18 and left the hosts needing just 45 from the final four overs, though Claydon brought Kent back into it after conceding just six singles off the 17th over.

Neesham went for as many runs from the opening ball of the 18th but after Chopra was dropped on the boundary by Bell-Drummond from the following ball, Qayyum made amends from the next delivery to leave Essex 191-4 with 15 balls left.

Chopra departed for an incredible 116 from just 59 balls including nine sixes.

With Ryan ten Doeschate and James Foster in the middle, the game still hung in the balance, and the Dutchman breezed to 23 from 14 balls, clubbing Claydon for six to finish an otherwise tight penultimate over.

Adam Milne was left to defend 16 from the final six balls but after a single another fine Qayyum catch on the run sent ten Doeschate packing and the hosts could only muster a further three singles.

It all means the winner of the Kent v Surrey game at Canterbury on Friday night (7pm) will qualify for the quarter-finals of the competition.

The start of play at Chelmsford was delayed for 20 minutes while the air ambulance landed on the outfield to attend to a steward who had suffered a suspected heart attack.