Hampshire v Kent

THE hectic schedule and the frenetic action of the Twenty20 Cup gets underway at The Rose Bowl on Friday when Kent take on Hampshire Hawks in a floodlit game starting at 7.30pm.

It will be an early opportunity for Spitfires to avenge their two-run defeat to the Hawks in Tunbridge Wells earlier in the month the helped put paid to Spitfires' involvement in the Friends Provident Trophy.

The first of eight qualifiers in the space of 14 days, this will be the fifth time these sides have clashed in the short-form game with each county having won twice.

Spitfires won last year's encounter at Beckenham by 15 runs after coming back from the dead at Worsley Bridge Road.

On that occasion, the hosts had slipped to 37 for six before Tyron Henderson, who turns out for Middlesex this season, hammered 63 to help them reach 134 for nine.

In reply, Hawks slid to 17 for four, and though Nic Pothas led a recovery with 30, Andrew Hall and Amjad Khan polished off the Kent win with three wickets apiece.

Neither Khan or Hall will be available for this year's cup ties, Khan is still in Denmark recovering from knee surgery while Hall is required for international duty against India and Ireland.

Hall’s spot will be taken by fellow South African Morne Morkel, the 22-year-old, one-Test rookie.

Captain Rob Key said: "The batting order in the 50-over competition didn't really work for us.

"We played reasonably well, but came short too many times, so we'll have to address that by finding a different formula.

"We have to find a way of getting off to some good starts and putting teams on the back foot."