KENT will need to adjust their game plan if they are to overcome title-chasing Warwickshire Bears in today's floodlight Norwich Union League clash at Canterbury.

That's the opinion of Spitfires’ experienced keeper-batsman Paul Nixon who feels the tactics of 45-over cricket have changed this season leaving title-holders Kent behind.

"We won the league last season by nicking games at the death, but with the new white ball we use this season the tactics have changed," said Nixon. "This Reader ball stays harder for longer which means that batsmen can hit plenty of boundaries at the death as well as at the start of the innings.

"Whereas last year, teams would send in a pinch-hitter just for the start we knew that when the ball went softer, it suited our bowlers like Mark Ealham, James Golding, Martin Saggers and Matthew Fleming who could bowl really tight at the death.

"This season has been frustrating for them because with the harder ball and at their similar pace it can disappear if they don’t get it quite right in the last couple of overs. And now teams are keeping wickets in hand for hitting at the death rather than in the first 15 overs, so that’s something we need to adjust to."

Spitfires skipper Matthew Fleming will lead his side out at St Lawrence after overcoming a hamstring strain, but will have some tough selection decisions to make before taking on the second-placed Bears.

David Fulton will undergo a fitness test on his fractured left hand and could oust understudy wicketkeeper Geraint Jones should he pass, despite Jones’s plucky cameo 27 in a losing cause on Sunday.

David Masters and James Golding impressed with the ball at Grace Road but one seems likely to give way to accommodate the return of Martin Saggers, but Ben Trott’s five wicketless overs against the Foxes proved expensive, costing 37 runs, and could cost him his place to Amjad Khan.

After going into Sunday’s game without a spinner, Fleming may also offer a re-call to Folkestone rookie James Tredwell.

With just three wins from their eight starts, Kent’s attentions have switched from defending their title to avoiding relegation to Division 2 but will take comfort from their C&G Trophy drubbing of Warwickshire here at St Lawrence in June.

The match starts at 4.20pm with a scheduled finish at 10.20pm. Kent from: Fleming, Key, Hockley, Symonds, Nixon, Fulton, Ealham, Golding, Tredwell, Saggers, Khan, Jones, Masters, Trott, Patel.