Kent batting hero Martin van Jaarsveld could still just about raise a smile despite scoring his magnificent 124 in a losing cause against Essex.

The South African's top one-day score for the county and his second limited overs ton was not enough to prevent Eagles from landing a deserved 31-run win in front of a disappointingly small Canterbury crowd.

Afterwards the Spitfires vice-captain said: "I felt this was a better innings than my hundred at Bath (in 2005) because this knock was under a lot more pressure.

"I tried to keep us in the game for as long as I could, but sadly I just couldn't pull it off.

"It was pretty tough for us from the start and the game just kept sliding away and toward the end there, we needed 11 and 12 an over, which made it really hard.

"You'll always have a sniff of victory when a bloke like Azhar comes in, after all he's one of the best finishers in the world in limited overs cricket, but on the day we just weren't good enough."

Kent will now train on Tuesday and dust themselves down in time for Wednesday's start to their LV County Championship match with reigning champions Sussex in Hove.