Kent survived a dose of the run-chase jitters to finally overcome a brave Scotland by four wickets in a rain-affected Friends Provident Trophy thriller in Canterbury.

Set to chase a revised target of 206 in 44 overs, Kent eventually got home with only 10 balls to spare courtesy of a season's best 97 not out from England Lions opener Joe Denly.

In front of a 3,000-plus crowd - the best for any of Scotland's ties to date - the Spitfires appeared to be cruising to their second Group B win in as many days as they reached 137 for one in reply to Scotland's excellent 50-over total of 227 for seven.

Home captain Rob Key (27) helped add 70 for the first wicket and Martin van Jaarsveld nearly doubled the score in contributing a fluent 37 before a half-hour rain break interrupted the flow of runs.

Soon after the resumption, which led to the loss of six overs, van Jaarsveld chipped to deep mid-wicket, then the home supporters grew restless when three more fell in as many overs.

Darren Stevens (14) drove a return catch to spinner Ryan Watson, James Hockley (0) ran past one from Glenn Rogers to be stumped by Simon Smith, as was Azhar Mahmood (1) after dragging his back foot when attempting a slog sweep.

Sixteen runs were still needed when Geraint Jones nicked to the keeper after aiming an ambitious slash drive off Jan Stander, but Denly, having reached a patient 50 from 80 balls, saw his side home to finish unbeaten after facing 129 balls and having hit six fours and a six.

Earlier Scotland made good use of an excellent St Lawrence Ground batting track to post their best score of this season's competition.

Former Yorkshire and England all-rounder and newly appointed Saltires' skipper Gavin Hamilton top-scored with 75 from 112 balls with five fours and featured in a stand of 84 in 17 overs with Scotland's designated overseas player Cameron Borgas.

Having hit a half-century on his Scotland debut against Warwickshire, Borgas again reached the milestone in 56 balls as Scotland threatened at one point to severely test the hosts.

But two hostile stints from Robbie Joseph held the visitors in check. He firstly had Hamilton caught at cover then swapped ends to account for Stander and Neil McCallum to finish with three for 55.

Wily Mahmood also performed well with the new ball and then at the death, picking up a wicket in each spell to return two for 41 in his 10 overs and help limit Scotland to a scoring rate of only 4.54 an over.

Though Kent were fully tested, they survived the examination to post their second FPT win in three starts.