SPITFIRES crashed to a 65-run totesport League defeat in Northampton after a poor display with bat and ball against the newly promoted Northamptonshire Steelbacks.

Set to chase a modest 45-over target of 212, Kent lost half their wickets for 33 inside 16 overs in one of their worst starts to a one-day innings in years.

Eighth wicket partners Min Patel and Rob Ferley at least took them past their worst ever Sunday score of 83 at Lord’s 20 years ago, but even so this was a pitiful performance as Kent succumbed for 146 with almost five overs remaining.

The rot set in as early as the third over when Michael Carberry (10), promoted to open in only his 10th league appearance for Kent, pushed at a Steffan Jones leg-cutter to edge and edged to wicketkeeper Gerard Brophy.

A couple of balls later Rob Key nicked a push-drive against the same bowler to give Brophy his second catch of the over to go without scoring.

Matthew Walker also failed to trouble the scorers, shuffling across his stumps he went leg before to Johan Louw.

Five overs later David Fulton (8) chipped a catch to cover to give former Kent seamer Ben Phillips his first wicket and make it 29 for four.

James Tredwell (2) perished when he ran down the pitch to only the third ball of the match from fellow spinner Jason Brown to be stumped by a country mile.

On his league debut Irishman Niall O’Brien, wearing the quirky shirt number 00, teamed up with Ed Smith to double Kent’s score but after an impish 19 he cut a wide one to backward point.

After several near misses, Smith (31) succeeded in running himself out when wanting a single to Tom Roberts at short fine leg.

To make matters worse, Patel pulled a groin muscle in reaching 26 and before holing out to deep square-leg.

Rob Ferley (37) ended up as top-scorer, but Kent’s final ignominy was to lose their last two wickets to part-time bowler Usman Afzaal.

Because of the mediocre pitch, the Steelbacks’ innings had been a workmanlike effort rather than a thing of beauty.

Top-scorer Afzaal scored just two boundaries in his 89-ball innings of 66.

Even Martin van Jaarsveld, fresh from scoring 46 and 114 in the corresponding championship match, found fluent scoring difficult with 36 from 65 balls and just a brace of fours.

Home skipper David Sales upped the tempo toward the end of the innings with 51 from 55-balls, but managed three fours to go with only the second six of the innings.

Without Andrew Symonds, who had flown to Harare on re-scheduled one-day international duty, Kent also gambled on resting their second overseas professional Mohammad Sami.

Having bowled 53 overs in the four-day game here earlier in the week, Kent took the view that Sami had earned his corn.

Amjad Khan was duly re-called to share the new ball with Saggers but skipper Fulton had plans to take the pace off the ball as much as possible by using a quartet of spinners in Tredwell, Ferley, Patel and Carberry.

Only Ferley with two for 37 enjoyed any success in accounting for Van Jaarsveld and Afzaal, but Tredwell was the most economic, conceding just 28 from his nine overs.

The pick of the Spitfires attack, however, was Martin Saggers, who celebrated his 32nd birthday with three for 30 from the Old Football Ground End.

Though coach Paul Farbrace believed it was Kent’s best fielding display in one-day cricket this season, the total still proved completely beyond their reach.