Surrey 193 for 7 (Evans 62*, Pope 53, Stewart 3-27) beat Kent 151 for 9 (Crawley 46, Santner 3-28) by 42 runs
Surrey have thrashed the Kent Spitfires by 42 runs in the Vitality Blast at Canterbury.
Surrey posted 193 for 7, Ollie Pope giving them a platform with 53 before Laurie Evans assaulted the death overs, making an unbeaten 62 from just 26 balls.
England's Zak Crawley hit 45 but the Spitfires crashed from 109 for 2 to 118 for 8, losing six wickets in a cataclysmic 17-ball spell. Mitchell Santner took 3 for 28 and Kent eventually closed on 151 for nine. Grant Stewart had Kent's best bowling figures with 3-27.
Surrey openers Pope and Dom Sibley put on 83 for the first wicket, after being put in. The former dominated the strike, reaching 50 with a swept single off Matt Parkinson and hitting one six off Joe Denly over the retirement flats on the Old Dover Road.
The partnership wasn't broken till the 10th over, when Pope chipped Parkinson to Denly at cover, but Kent then put the brakes on: Jason Roy was stifled and eventually holed out to Parkinson, getting caught on the boundary by Tom Rogers for four off ten balls.
Sibley went for 36, trying to ramp Stewart but hitting him straight to Parkinson at sort third man and Sam Curran went in the same over, driving limply to Denly for one.
Leaning missed a difficult chance to catch Evans off Stewart when he was on 15 and although the assault looked set to begin with five overs left when Santner dumped Wes Agar back over his head for six, he was out for 13 two balls later when he tried to repeat the trick and skied Agar to Rogers just inside the rope.
Surrey were only on 128 for 5 after 16 overs, but Evans hit Rogers for 29 in the 17th. He reached his 50 from 20 balls, in the 19th over, before Ollie Sykes went for 15, run out by Leaning chasing a second. Chris Jordan then holed out to Stewart and was caught by Rogers for a duck.
The chase got off to a bad start when Daniel Bell-Drummond was run out for two by a direct hit from Curran in the second over. Tawanda Muyeye made 26 from 20 balls but he swiped Santner to Sibley on the cow corner boundary.
While Crawley and Denly were at the crease, however, Kent looked a decent bet, until a catastrophic spell saw them lose three wickets in three balls.
At the end of the 13th Santner got Denly for 28, caught by Jordan at long off and Rogers for a golden duck, to a horrific shot that looped straight to Curran at midwicket. Crawley was then run out chasing a second off the first ball of the 14th and Sam Billings went in the same over, hitting Smith straight to Jordan.
Over 4,537 were in the Spitfire Ground but the atmosphere had been killed stone dead, well before Stewart was out for two, hitting Curran to Roy at long off. Curran then had Leaning caught by Sibley four and Wes Agar was run out by Jordan for five off his own bowling.
This left last-wicket duo Fred Klaassen and Parkinson with impossible task of hitting 49 off Jordan Clark's final over.
