Middlesex Panthers' Neil Dexter

Middlesex Panthers maintained their miserable home t20 record as they ended their South Group campaign with another defeat by Kent Spitfires at Uxbridge.

The Panthers could have climbed above Kent into fourth place in the final table, but slumped to their fifth straight home reverse of the tournament as the visitors triumphed by three wickets on Sunday.

Paul Stirling (12) thrashed a couple of quick boundaries at the start of the Panthers innings after Kent had won the toss and, unsurprisingly, decided to field on a soggy track.

But Stirling then skied one into the hands of Simon Cook, and Steven Crook hit 18 off 12 balls before squirting to mid-wicket when Cook tucked him up on the leg stump.

Dawid Malan holed out to Adam Ball on the boundary for just four, while Neil Dexter rode his luck with a Chinese cut past leg stump and a cover drive that flew through the hands of Adam Riley.

The Middlesex skipper reached 42, but his good fortune ran out when he sliced Darren Stevens high in the air to his opposite number Rob Key at cover.

Sam Billings’ superb boundary catch accounted for Adam Rossington (7) and the wickets of John Simpson (5), Ollie Rayner (2), Tom Scollay (19) and Tim Murtagh (1) soon followed as the Panthers floundered to 124-9.

When the Spitfires replied, Billings (10) slashed Crook (2-21) to Ollie Wilkin at point, and the Middlesex youngster pouched his second catch to dismiss Key (3) at 28-2.

Sam Northeast (21) was caught pulling Wilkin to deep mid-wicket and Stevens (26) launched two big sixes off Dexter before he was caught by Malan attempting a third.

But the visitors were always comfortably up with the modest run-rate and Azhar Mahmood and Alex Blake plundered a Tom Smith over for 20 to all but settle the contest.

Blake (22) was eventually caught in the deep by Murtagh, while Crook’s nifty piece of fielding ran out Mahmood (30) and he followed that up by bowling Ball (4), but it made little difference as Kent clinched victory with six balls to spare.