Kent skipper Rob Key was quick to praise last minute selection Neil Dexter for his unbeaten 101 that helped Spitfires beat Somerset and book a trip to Durham in the Friends Provident Trophy semi-finals.

Dexter, who only played because Martin van Jaarsveld was absent to be with his wife Jill at the birth of their baby daughter, did superbly well in testing conditions to hit the only century of the match in his first one-day appearance of the summer.

Key, who hit 73 for his part in a century-stand with Dexter, said: "I said to him (Dexter) at one point, 'look mate, you've got licence from me to have a go here, go at it like it's the last two overs of the game' and, to be fair to him, he did.

"He probably felt under a good deal of pressure because the 2nd team boys haven't had a lot of cricket because of all the rain that's been around so full credit to him coming in and getting his runs like that.

"In those conditions 260 was worth at least 30 more on a normal day and we couldn't believe how slow the outfield was at the start there. But I love playing here, it's a fantastic deck.

"We lost a bit of momentum through my dismissal, which I didn't get too near too, but it's a good sign that we picked up afterwards and have so many players scoring important runs in one-day cricket."

As for prospect of playing Durham in next month's semi-final, Key said: "Ideally a home draw would have been nice, other than that a tie a little closer to home, but Durham it is and of course they're the holders.

"But you have to beat the top teams if you're going to win anything so whoever it is we'll be giving it our best."

Kent are in action again on Friday with the scheduled start to their LV Championship match with Sussex in Canterbury.