Paul Terry admitted that Andrew Symonds left his players "shell shocked" after Hampshire suffered their first Twenty20 Cup defeat yesterday.

Australian World Cup all-rounder Symonds, 27, smashed an unbeaten 96 off just 37 balls as Hampshire were beaten by six wickets by Kent with eight overs to spare on a hot day in Beckenham.

Hampshire manager Terry said: "He's the type of guy who is very difficult to defend against. He's got awesome power and leaves you feeling a bit shell-shocked.

"I've seen him do it before for Australia and Queensland but to have it done against you is hard - you run out of ideas.

"Everything he did came off. When he wasn't hitting it well the ball was still going through third man and various places and when that starts to happen it's pretty difficult to legislate for guys like that.

"We knew we had to try and get him out initially. We had close fielders in but that didn't work and we tried to contain him but that didn't work - we were in trouble. It's lucky that they didn't bat first - we could have been chasing about 300!"

Hampshire finished on a disappointing 145-6 after losing four wickets in the space of eight balls midway through their innings.

"Scores will get higher as players get used to the game but 145 is just a middle of the road score," added Terry. "We expected better than that, particularly after the start we had and we weren't able to defend that score like we managed on Friday.

"We should have got more runs but we've had enother middle-order collapse which is something we have to put right."

Terry added: "You have to give credit where credit's due. We've just witnessed a special innings, but you can't really compare it to anything else.

"This is bish-bash. It's all about opening your shoulders and firing away."