by Andrew Gidley

Martin Van Jaarsveld's one-day best was unable to help Kent avoid a second successive defeat in Group B of the Friends Provident Trophy at Canterbury on Saturday.

Van Jaarsveld hit an unbeaten 132 off 125 balls, including 13 fours, passing his previous best of 124 against Essex last year, the highlight of an ordinary Kent batting display, with nobody unable to stay with him.

Last season's beaten finalists now need to win both their final matches, against Scottish Saltires on Monday and Warwickshire Bears in Birnmingham two days later, to have any chance of making the last eight.

Kent never recovered from a poor start, losing Joe Denly to a seven-ball duck and skipper Rob Key's poor run continued as he struggled to 16 off 48 balls, before being run out by Ben Phillips attempting a quick single.

Left-arm seamer Charl Willoughby stifled Kent's reply with miserly figures of 10-2-15-0, before former Kent all-rounder Peter Trego weighed in with the wickets of Justin Kemp and Geraint Jones on his way to a return of 4-56. The rest of the Kent innings, fell away as Van Jaarsveld completed his fifth hundred in a competion he dominated with the bat last season. In the end, Spitfires ended 45 runs short of Somerset's total of 296 all out.

Simon Cook, left out against Middlesex on Monday, was the pick of the Kent attack with 3-29, dismissing Craig Kieswetter, James Hildreth and Marcus Trescothick (56) to leave Somerset 114-3 after 26 overs.

However, skipper Justin Langer (77) and Zander De Bruyn (72) made the most of the powerplays to add 114 in 19 overs, before Wayne Parnell returned to engineer a Somerset collapse, taking 3-12 in 13 balls as they dipped from 264-5 to 275-9, only for Rob Ferley to concede 17 runs in the final over.

Graham Ford was due to arrive at Heathrow on Sunday morning from South Africa, and then travel to Gatwick to meet the Kent squad on their way to Edinburgh for Monday's must-win clash against the Saltires. Kent name a squad of 12, the team that lost to Somerset plus James Hockley, who was left out on Saturday.