Kent Spitfires suffered a last-ball defeat in their latest T20 Blast group game against Surrey - being beaten by five wickets at Canterbury on Sunday.

Sean Abbott again was one of the Surrey heroes. Jamie Smith scored the run they needed off the final ball and ended not out on 49 while Abbott was unbeaten on 21 off 14 balls in front of a healthy crowd in the sunshine.

Spitfires skipper Sam Billings said: “We probably just leaked a couple of boundaries at the end there when the rate was getting up to about 12-an-over.

“They’re such small margins. It was a great game of cricket which, unfortunately, we have come out on the wrong side of.

“Both innings were pretty similar, which kind of said what the pitch was like.

“Jamie Smith played a really good knock and they found the boundary when they needed to at the end.”

Billings had won the toss and elected to bat first.

From the first ball, there was excitement. Tawanda Muyeye edged spinner Will Jacks (3-28) to third man for two and nearly got involved in a mix-up with opening partner Daniel Bell-Drummond.

But 22-year-old Muyeye was bowled by Jacks off the last ball of the first over for nine, having sent the previous delivery through the covers for the first boundary.

The third over, Abbott’s only one (0-13), saw Joe Denly deliver the first maximum after he had sent the ball before into a similar area in the legside for four.

Spitfires moved to 50 inside the fifth over. But Jacks again struck with the last ball of the fifth over as he bowled Denly for a 15-ball 27, the home side 54-2 at the end of the powerplay.

That brought Billings in. He and Bell-Drummond manoeuvred the ball well to help Kent reach 71, only for the latter to pick out Abbott for 25 in the ninth over.

The 11th over saw Jordan Cox hit an overdue boundary off Surrey skipper Chris Jordan (0-39).

Big hits had been few and far between in the middle overs of Kent’s innings but Cox did club the last ball of the 12th over for a maximum while Billings drove down the ground for four in the next over.

Billings appeared to have found some rhythm at this stage and switch-hit West Indian spinner Sunil Narine (2-28) for six. The 31-year-old had reached 30, only to be bowled by Narine with Spitfires’ score 111-4.

Cox was dropped on the legside boundary by Jamie Overton off Jordan’s bowling in the 15th over. The following over, Overton made no mistake, however, as a switch-hit by 22-year-old Cox picked him out for 23 on the ropes once more.

An attempted ramp by top scorer Jack Leaning (34 not out) was dropped by Gus Atkinson at short third man off Curran (0-42) with a single the end result to leave Kent 140-5, heading into the final two overs.

And in the penultimate over, both Leaning and South African overseas George Linde - who contributed an unbeaten 11-ball 22 - struck sixes in an over worth 17 off Jordan.

Leaning repeated the trick in the final over with two more maximums. He missed the last ball but he and Linde ran two byes after wicketkeeper Ben Foakes and then Curran himself missed with throws at the stumps to allow the Spitfires to finish on 173-5.

Linde (2-28) bowled Spitfires’ first over. But, after a good start by the 31-year-old, Surrey opener Laurie Evans blasted 10 off two balls, including the first six of their innings.

Evans and Jacks had raced to 29-0 in three overs, the former getting 26 of them, before Jacks’ first two boundaries came in successive balls from 42-year-old Michael Hogan (0-37).

The first over by all-rounder Grant Stewart (2-32), Kent’s fifth, proved economical and only went for five.

But 32-year-old Kane Richardson, once again, was expensive (0-53). His first over went for 10 and his second - the last of the powerplay - saw him concede another 18 to leave the visitors 62-0 after six overs.

Leg-spinner Denly (1-23) finally got a much-needed breakthrough for Kent as Jacks was caught by Hogan for 30, having sent the ball before for six over long-off to leave the score at 76-1 in the eighth over.

Curran was dismissed off the bowling of Italian international Stewart for 10 by fellow all-rounder Joey Evison, who dived forward to take the catch. The away team were 91-2 at the halfway stage.

The 11th over saw Evans, who also presently plays club cricket in the Kent League Premier Division for Minster, move to his half-century.

Another massive breakthrough for the Spitfires came when Foakes picked out Richardson on the legside boundary off Linde for three, the game being dragged back towards the balance.

A matter of balls later, in almost identical fashion, Evans swept Linde to Muyeye for a 35-ball 52 to leave Surrey 97-4 after 12 overs.

Wickets were now falling fairly regularly and, in the 14th over, Tom Curran picked out Richardson off Stewart for a run-a-ball six.

With 58 required off the last five overs, Surrey’s lethal all-rounder Abbott - who equalled the fastest T20 Blast century against Kent at The Kia Oval recently - thrashed back-to-back boundaries through the legside off Hogan in the 16th over. Hogan did, however, recover well in the next four balls.

Richardson returned to the attack and was sent for another two sixes to leave 30 needed off the last three overs.

Smith was out there with Abbott but he was the one taking the match away from The Spitfires this time, with successive sixes off Stewart, the second of which was an enormous whack to the legside.

With 16 needed off the last 12 balls, the experience of Richardson finally came to the fore to help ensure Surrey required another nine runs off the final over.

But Smith swept over short fine leg for four to level the scores off the penultimate ball and just about squeezed a very tough catching chance through Leaning’s hands as they got the last run they needed.

Smith finished one shy of a half-century, hitting four sixes and a four off 29 balls.

It’s four successive T20 defeats for The Spitfires after their opening match win over Gloucestershire.

Linde said: “It’s unfortunate we lost that one. I thought we had it – but it wasn’t meant to be.

“It’s just unlucky but it’s just one of those things.

“I thought 170, on that wicket, was a pretty good total. We were speaking about 160 and then we got 13 runs more.

“I thought it was enough but, unfortunately, it wasn’t today.

“They played well so hats off to them.”

Kent made one change from the side which lost to Glamorgan in Cardiff on Friday night, which saw Richardson replace fellow Australian fast bowler Wes Agar.

Foakes, Abbott and England international Jordan were among the away side alongside brothers Tom and Sam Curran.