Director of cricket Paul Farbrace felt Kent Spitfires lost momentum towards the end of their innings during a six-wicket defeat to Worcestershire Royals in the Clydesdale Bank 40 match at the St Lawrence Ground on Sunday.

Kent had been progressing well with Martin van Jaarsveld sharing in 50 partnerships with Rob Key and Darren Stevens.

But when van Jaarsveld and Stevens fell in quick succession Kent ended up on 232-8, 20 runs short of what they would have hoped to have scored.

“I don’t think it is a game we should have lost to be honest,” said Farbrace (pictured).

“People will point to us having quite a young and inexperienced team, but we had enough experience and good players to have won that game.

“We had a stage in our innings when we lost a bit of momentum. We lost players that were in and we had to almost start again. That probably lost us a few overs and a few runs.

“Jarre and Stevo played really well but, in the harsh world, you would say we needed another 20 runs.”

Farbrace was still able to take positives from the game, despite his disappointment over the result.

“Adam Riley and Adam Ball bowled really well,” he said. “I thought our energy in the field was very good so there were good things, but it just wasn’t quite good enough.”