Kent’s losing streak in the T20 Blast continued on Wednesday with a four-wicket loss to Essex Eagles at Canterbury.

It’s now five succesive defeats for Spitfires, their decision to bat backfiring when, having put on 32 for the opening wicket, they were rocked by a spell of four runs for four wickets in eight balls.

Joe Denly top scored with 39 in their 150-8, Sam Cook taking a hat-trick for the away side, before Eagles chased down their target after 18.2 overs.

Kent’s Grant Stewart, who added 37 to give the hosts something to bowl at, said: “It’s always a challenge when you lose wickets in the powerplay but you’ve got to hand it to Cook. There was a bit of assistance out there and he bowled really well, as we’ve seen him bowl in a lot of championship games as well.

“It was a bit frustrating that we managed to get to a bit of a score and the boys who bowled in the powerplay did really well and got us in the game, so it is a little bit disappointing but that’s cricket, isn’t it?

[Joe Denly and George Linde] set it up for us to have a little bit of a crack at the end. If they’d got out in those middle overs it would have made it an even taller task for us so those boys deserve the credit as they batted really well through that difficult period and we managed to get a bit of a score.

“We bowled fairly well in patches but fell down at times as well.

“It’s a bit of a tough one to take, getting four wickets in the powerplay and come out on the losing side, but it was a total where they could pace their innings quite nicely, knowing what they needed to chase.

“It was a massive bonus for us to have Fred Klaassen back, you saw how well he bowled today for all four overs, but specifically I think he was in the top three in the country last year in the powerplay so he’s massive asset to our team and the boys are really pumped to have him back in the team and playing for us. Hopefully he’ll help us turn a few results around.”

Cook had taken 4-18 as Kent were held to 150-8, which actually represented a recovery. Essex were 31-4 before Matt Critchley’s unbeaten 63 saw them home with 10 balls to spare.

Kent were celebrating the 171st Canterbury Cricket Week but having put on 32 for the opening wicket, they lost four in eight balls.

Daniel Bell-Drummond got away with an ugly shot off Shane Snater that sailed over the boundary, but he hit the next ball almost vertically and was caught by Feroze Khushi for 22.

Cook then sent Tawanda Muyeye’s stumps flying before getting Sam Billings caught behind for a golden duck and he claimed his first Blast hat-trick when Jordan Cox was plumb LBW.

With under five overs gone the remaining batsmen had little choice other than to drop anchor and Jack Leaning had made nine from 20 balls when he hit Critchley to Daniel Sams at forward square leg.

When Simon Harmer’s 15th over went for just two the old joke about it not being a Test match leapt to mind, but the charge finally came in the 17th when George Linde hit Harmer for six, only to edge the next ball straight to Robin Das.

When Cook bowled Denly, Stewart was left with the tail, but an eight-ball final over from Sams went for 27, including two sixes from Stewart, who was eventually caught by Das off the fifth legitimate delivery. A misfield allowed Kent to scramble two off the last ball, but the total still looked below par - until Essex started to bat.

Fred Klaassen, back after missing the start of the Blast for personal reasons, had Khushi LBW with the second ball of the innings.

It was 1-2 when Dan Lawrence edged Michael Hogan’s first ball down the leg side where he was brilliantly caught by Billings.

Hogan then bowled Das’ middle stump for 11, breaking Sky’s stump camera, and when Michael Pepper went for 13, skying Kane Richardson to Billings, Essex were 31-4 but Paul Walter and Critchley steadied their nerves.

The former made 27 from 15 before he cut Stewart to Leaning and Sams chipped in with 17 before Linde bowled him.

Critchley never allowed the run rate to escalate while Will Buttleman survived an LBW shout from Linde and then reverse-swept him for four, before hitting Hogan for six into the Old Dover Road gardens.

Fittingly Critchley hit the winning runs when he hit Denly for six over cow corner, leaving Kent’s hopes of qualifying looking almost skeletal. They are next in action tomorrow (Friday) when Hampshire Hawks visit Canterbury.