KENT moved up to third place in the NatWest Pro40 Division 2 table after disposing of Leicestershire by 41 runs and with three overs in hands in a day-night game in Canterbury.

This low-scoring tie, played out in front of a 5,000 crowd and the Sky Sport cameras, was never a spectacle as a parched wicket made aggressive batting almost impossible, even for the most skilled of limited overs’ batsmen.

Responding to Kent’s workmanlike total of 198 for seven, the visitors lost early wickets and were never truthfully in with a shout as Kent avenged last month’s Twenty20 Cup defeat to the Foxes.

In the face of an excellent and hostile new ball stint by Amjad Khan and Tyron Henderson, Leicestershire’s top-order struggled to lay bat on ball let alone hit it off the square.

In stark contrast to last month’s Twenty20 quarter final, Kent’s bowlers stemmed the run rate and wickets duly followed.

Darren Robinson (1) pushing at a Henderson lifter with the face of his bat wide open edged to Geraint Jones then, seven overs into the reply, Hylton Ackerman (2) walked across his stumps in a bid to work to leg only to go leg before to Khan.

Former England one-day international Darren Maddy hung around for 46 balls to muster one four in his 15 runs before he clipped a slower ball from the restored Simon Cook low to James Tredwell in the gully.

Mansoor Amjad’s 30-ball stay then ended with his score on 18 and again the credit went to the bowler. It was Dwayne Bravo’s slower ball that fooled the Pakistan leg-spinner who drove outside the line of a looping off-cutter to go leg before.

Former St Lawrence favourite Paul Nixon teamed up with his experienced skipper Jeremy Snape in a bid to keep the Foxes in touch, but despite their best efforts the asking rate had risen to seven-an-over by the mid-point of the innings.

Their rally ended when Snape, having cut a Cook length ball to third man, chanced a second against the throw of Dwayne Bravo to be run out by inches after referral to the third umpire.

A sixth wicket stand worth 35 ended with the introduction of Neil Dexter, whose first-ball yorker pegged back John Saddler’s middle stump meaning that with 10 overs to go the run rate had soared to 9.3 an over.

Claude Henderson then skied a Dexter slower ball to his namesake Tyron at mid-off and David Masters chopped on when slogging to give Dexter competition best figures of three for 17, including a burst of three for eight in 14 balls.

Nixon became only the second player to reach 50, it took him 79 minutes mind, but at least he saved his side from total ignominy before reverse sweeping to backward point.

Khan finished it, having Adam Griffith caught on the ropes, to send the crowd home happy.

Rather aptly, Spitfires’ top-scorer was Hinckley-born Darren Stevens who summoned up all his patience to reach 74 from 104 balls.

Against the county he served for seven years before joining Kent, Stevens had to rein himself in and be content to push twos and ones rather than hit the extravagant boundaries that have become his trademark.

Having seen Dexter play inside an Adam Griffith yorker to lose his off stump, Stevens settled in to grind out 69 for the second wicket in tandem with Martin van Jaarsveld.

The South African played as fluently as anyone could on this pitch, driving three boundaries in a 44-ball cameo of 36 that ended when he miscued a straight drive high to long off.

Spitfires lost two in the next over bowled by former Kent seamer David Masters who trapped Rob Key (3) leg before on the drive and then, three balls later, he pegged back Bravo’s off-stump when he played around a straight one.

Matt Walker tried to improvise and managed to connect with two reverse sweeps, but on this surface the extraordinary proved nigh on impossible the left-hander finally went tamely, slapping the ball to mid-wicket having taken the score on to 126-5 in tandem with Jones.

The England player showed was content to play the waiting game as he and Stevens added a valuable 38 until Stevens eventually ran out of patience, slicing a drive high to cover point.

Jones had to wait until the 36th over for his first boundary, a sweetly-timed straight drive off Mansoor Amjad, then Henderson got in on the act with two in successive overs.

The burly South African clubbed Mansoor over the marquees at deep mid-wicket and then swept a full ball from Claude Henderson to clear the ropes at square-leg.

Henderson fell in the final over from the excellent young seamer Stuart Broad with another mistimed drive, but his 14 from 11 balls coupled with Jones’s unbeaten 40 from 34 balls took Kent to the verge of 200 and to what they felt was a defendable total.

The fact Kent had only hit 14 boundaries in their entire innings indicated that batting was tough, and the Foxes were just about to find that out for themselves.