Kent hope to unveil another big name overseas bowler in the next seven days to boost their Championship promotion hopes.

The county have also been bolstered by the return of James Harris and Sam Billings this week.

Harris’ loan from Middlesex was reactivated after the Royal London One-Day Cup clash between the two sides at Canterbury on Sunday, while fresh from England’s ODI series win against Ireland, Billings is available for Kent’s Friday night trip to Surrey and Sunday’s game against Glamorgan at Swansea.

Skipper Sam Northeast said he was happy to welcome back paceman Harris – who was a sub fielder for his parent club on Sunday – adding: “He made a good impact on our team, especially in four-day cricket.”

Harris had been recalled ahead of Kent’s clash with Sussex last Friday after Middlesex were depleted by international call-ups.

The 26-year-old’s original two-month loan resumed on Tuesday, meaning he has another month left at Kent, though he can again be recalled at any time.

Kent have however lost Wayne Parnell, who links up with South Africa ahead of their ICC Champions Trophy campaign, and Northeast admitted: “Parnell will be a big miss for us. We’re going to get another player in.

“We’d like to get another overseas in at some stage. We’re talking to a few people.”

The 46-run success over Middlesex – achieved despite Kent recording a total of just 200 – was the Spitfire’s first in four South Group games.

Against the odds they remain in contention for a top-three spot and a return to the knockout stages for the third year in four, though Northeast thinks they might need to win their final four games.

Northeast said: “I didn’t expect to win, I have to admit, I thought 200 was short, but full credit to the bowlers. It’s the best I’ve seen us bowl in the powerplay for a long time.

“Parnell is an international cricketer and he showed what he is about. His fantastic early spell set it up for us.

“He will be a big miss for us going forward but it was good to see the boys back bowling well again. We haven’t been consistent enough, we’ve given teams head-starts.

“We haven’t played our best cricket. There’s been a lot of good things, Alex Blake’s 116, two Bell-Drummond hundreds, we’re playing a lot of good cricket but haven’t been at our best with the ball.

“It’s going to be tough to get into that top three, we’re going to have to win our remaining games, but if we play like we can do we’ll go close.

“One-day cricket now you have to go out there and play with freedom. You have to back yourself and the team. There’s a lot of belief in the side.

“The boys know we have got a good one-day side, it’s just about putting it all together.
“We needed to get into our rhythm, and it’s probably taken until the fourth game to do that. Hopefully we can get on a bit of a run now.”