Joe Denly's unbeaten 97 denied the Scottish Saltires a morale-boosting win as Kent edged a Friends Provident Trophy thriller at Canterbury.

Set a revised target of 206 in 44 overs the Spitfires were cruising to victory at 137-1 before a rain break stopped them in their tracks.

On the resumption Kent lost five quick wickets, two to Ryan Watson's spin, but the highly-rated Denly remained calm to deny new skipper Gavin Hamilton his first win.

Earlier Hamilton and impressive Australian import Cameron Borgas had lead the way with the bat with 75 and 65 respectively, a day after they both hit half-centuries in the defeat at Warwickshire.

But once they fell there was little else as the Saltires posted a below-par 227-7 with Watson and Simon Smith the only other batsmen to make double figures.

Denly and Rob Key put on 70 for the first wicket in the reply before Jan Stander removed Key.

Martin van Jaarsveld also weighed in with a brisk 37 but despite the cheap dismissals of Darren Stevens, James Hockley, Azhar Mahmood and Geraint Jones, Scotland, crucially, couldn't shift Denly.