Kent's senior batsmen suffered the same fate as their second string on Friday night after being stopped in their tracks by a rookie South African spinner.

The Spitfires’ hopes of reaching the Friends Life t20 quarter-finals took a major blow when they were thrashed by 83 runs at Hove.

And it was 20-year-old left-arm spinner Michael Rippon who did the damage – just weeks after taking 7-12 against Kent in a Second Eleven Trophy match at the same ground.

Spitfires were always facing an uphill struggle after Sussex posted their second highest t20 score of 212-6 but they then collapsed from 70-2 to 99-9 in reply with Rippon taking 4-23 in four overs.

Skipper Rob Key (pictured) returned to the Kent side following a neck injury but, despite using seven bowlers, could do nothing to prevent the flow of runs.

Matt Coles’ sole over went for 20 and, after Sussex Sharks reached 67-1 in the powerplay they promptly smashed 23 runs from Mark Davies’ final over to leave the normally economical bowler with figures of 0-46 in four overs.

England wicketkeeper Matt Prior proved particularly destructive, hitting 46 in 20 balls, including two sixes, but his effort was topped by opener Chris Nash (54) and Murray Goodwin, whose 68 not out from 31 deliveries included 11 boundaries and two sixes.

The pick of the Kent attack was spinner James Tredwell, who showed good control in going for just 25 runs in his four overs while the returning Simon Cook (3-41) was the most successful.

Former Kent paceman Amjad Khan accounted for Sam Northeast and Rob Key in the Spitfires’ reply but Sam Billings (38) and Darren Stevens (26) took them to 70-2 before a flurry of wickets.

Coles (1), Geraint Jones (2), Brendan Nash (4) and Adam Ball (1) all fell to Rippon while Chris Liddle took 2-19 as only a last-wicket partnership of 30 between Cook and Davies prevented Spitfires losing by an even bigger margin.

Kent travel to The Oval on Thursday to face Surrey before hosting Essex under the St Lawrence lights on Friday and finishing their t20 campaign at Middlesex on Sunday.