Kent will hope to end their poor sequence of six successive Lord’s final defeats on Saturday when Rob Key’s Spitfires take on Essex in the Friends Provident Trophy final on Saturday.

It is 24 years since Kent last reached the final of this event and no less than 34 years since they last won it.

Kent coach Simon Willis said: “Generally they have been tight games against Essex, particularly in the Twenty20 when games can go either way even if one particular player has a good day.

“In the longer form of the game, it’s all about which team execute their skills better and we feel that generally, if we do that well enough, then we’ll beat most teams.

“When Essex play away from Chelmsford they play a completely different balance to their side.

“They generally play three spinners at home but when they came to Canterbury they were forced to play an extra seamer.

“It will be interesting to see what type of surface is at Lord’s and what team they come up with.”

Saturday will be the sixth time the counties have met this season and Kent have won three to Essex’s two.

A big believer in statistics, Willis claimed the Trophy averages of both sides reveal that Kent excel in most areas.

He added: “It’s been a crucial factor to our improvement in one-day cricket in that we’ve improved our skills across the board, in the field as well as with bat and ball.

“We can bowl well in critical periods of a game now, in those first few overs as well as ‘at the death’ in the last 10, and we’ve made massive improvements in those areas.”