Kent Spitfires start a run of 10 Twenty20 Cup qualifying games in the space of 17 days on Wednesday when they set off in defence of the title against Sussex at the St Lawrence ground (5.40pm).

Nine months on from their cup success and Kent’s poker-playing captain Rob Key has an even stronger hand to play this time around as he masterminds the pursuit of back-to-back cup titles.

With Amjad Khan fit again and Robbie Joseph seemingly rejuvenated, Key has genuine pace bowling at his disposal, while the signature of Azhar Mahmood from neighbouring Surrey has so far proved little short of inspirational.

Mahmood has put in match-winning displays with bat and ball since his move east down the A2 and, together with Yasir Arafat, forms a fearsome ‘at the death’ bowling partnership.

Added to that, Key has the likes of Simon Cook, Darren Stevens and James Tredwell to apply the mid-innings scoring-rate brake and cool-headed Ryan McLaren, the cup final hat-trick hero of 2007, to capitalise during the pressure situations.

Spitfires also appear stronger on the batting front this summer, despite the fact that experienced crowd-favourite Matt Walker appears temporarily out of favour.

Mahmood, Arafat, Tredwell, Cook, McLaren and Geraint Jones are all capable of some mid to late-order power-hitting, while winter recruit Justin Kemp has the ability to bat a team out of a game in only a handful of overs.

Joe Denly, who formed a match-winning opening partnership with Key this time last year, will hope to build on his recent ton in Tunbridge Wells, while Martin van Jaarsveld, with three one-day hundreds to his credit already, is in awesome limited overs form and goes into the event averaging 96 in the FPT qualifiers.

In previewing the Twenty20 campaign Spitfires’ director of cricket, Graham Ford, said: “There’s no point looking ahead to potential quarter finals or finals day in this event, it’s all about one game at a time in Twenty20 because every game can turn out to be a massively tough one.

“We have played good one-day cricket so far this year but the beauty of Twenty20 is that one good individual performance can change the whole course of a game and I’d like to think we have plenty of in-form players who might be capable of that level of performance.”

Ford added: “It is a concern and it isn’t ideal that we go virtually straight into it from our four-day match against Sussex, but much of this game is about mindset, a lot of it is working on possible personal improvements well in advance so that we raise the standards of our play as we go through the competition.

“Last year we developed as a side as we progressed in the cup and it’s unlikely that we’ll start up with our ‘A game’ this time, but if you talk and work with each other, then things will come together.”

Canterbury and Beckenham again share Kent’s razzmatazz home games, while Spitfires also face away trips to the Brit Oval, Rose Bowl, Chelmsford, Uxbridge and Hove.

The fact Spitfires have seemingly improved their chances of retaining their title by squad strengthening appears to have escaped the eagle-eyed bookmakers however, and a £20 punt with Totesport on Key’s side to win again could reap a useful £220 return.

*** Hear Kent chief executive Paul Millman look ahead to the Twenty20 with km-fm by clicking on the audio link at the top of the page. ***

*** Click here to view a live match scorecard on the cricinfo website ***