Kent Spitfires fell woefully short in a run chase for the second successive Royal London One-Day Cup game on Thursday evening.

Chasing Essex's 331, Kent were well set at 76-1 but lost their last five wickets for just five runs as they were quickly skittled out for 149.

Essex opted to bat first and had to recover from a double breakthrough early on for Kent which saw the hosts 33-2 in the seventh over.

Feroze Khushi was first to go when he got a leading edge to give Matt Quinn a return catch. Fellow opener Josh Rymell followed lbw to Navdeep Saini.

Tom Westley and Grant Roelofsen joined forces to put on a match-defining third-wicket stand of 184 in just under 30 overs. Westley contributed 109 from 101 balls, while Roelofsen chipped in with a 79-ball 77, his 14th score above fifty in List A cricket, the others in his native South Africa.

Westley accelerated through his eighties with three fours in an over from Nathan Gilchrist that ultimately cost 19 runs. A characteristic flick off his legs for his 13th four took Westley to a 96-ball century.

Roelofsen’s anchorman role came to an end after 79 balls with a momentary lapse of concentration when Indian bowler Saini sent his middle-stump cartwheeling. Westley followed almost immediately when he scooped the fit-again Joe Denly (1-37) to Joey Evison on the fence at long-on.

That wicket-taking combination was reversed with Denly taking a spectacular diving catch at mid-on off Evison (3-62) to account for Aaron Beard. Four balls later Aron Nijjar, like Westley, picked out Evison to hand Hamid Qadri a wicket.

With Essex slipping from 217-2 to 250-6 in five overs, it needed some agricultural hitting from Shane Snater to ensure they went beyond 300.

Saini lost his composure with two balls above waist height to Robin Das that forced him out of the attack in the midst of an over. The second free-hit was smashed for six over square leg.

More drama was to come as Quinn contributed a wide of his own to the 10-ball over, which concluded with Das finding Harry Finch on the mid-wicket boundary to end a 49-run partnership inside four overs with Snater.

In response, Kent lost Tawanda Muyeye (19) in the sixth over trying to play Jamie Porter to leg but offering a catch to Das at point.

Ollie Robinson attacked from the start, hitting two sixes in his 31 before he flicked Porter to deep extra cover where Shane Snater took a low one-handed catch.

Snater’s drop of Denly (13) was not costly as three runs later Khushi took a stunning catch above his head at short cover.

Alex Blake (8) flicked Jamal Richards into Beard’s hands on the square-leg boundary. Finch managed just 12 from 28 balls before he chipped Snater to mid-on.

Evison (6) followed going for a suicidal second run to Snater in the deep and Roelofsen, behind the stumps, completed the run out.

Compton's fifty took 76 balls and included just two fours but wickets tumbled around him and Kent's tail was blown away by Snater (5-29).

Kent coach Simon Cook said: “The toss was actually the difference. You come here on a pitch that wasn’t obviously used, but it had been used earlier on in the year for a four-day game. We knew it was going to deteriorate and get worse.

"We were planning to bat first as well. They definitely got the best of the batting conditions. We saw that once we had taken the wickets of Westley and Roelofsen that wickets fell pretty swiftly for them as well.

“But as our innings went on you saw that batting became harder and harder. To be fair to them they knew how they were going to bowl on it - they bowled lots of cutters and used the big side really well - and the run rate got strangled.

"As a result the pressure builds and you lose a couple of wickets and the snowball becomes bigger and bigger until you see the end result which is us 150 all out.

“The only thing I said to the players after this innings was that I don’t think we needed to go into our shells, even on a pitch like this. We needed to take strong, positive, calculated options.

"I felt we were probably a bit timid and we could have fired a couple of punches back at them for them to think about. I want to see us not go into our shells and still maintain that positive outlook which we’ve had at the start of this tournament.”

Kent are next in action on Sunday when they host Northamptonshire at Canterbury (11am).