Kent’s dismal form continued as they were rolled over before lunch by Derbyshire on the final day of their Rothesay County Championship Division 2 match on Monday.
It is now four defeats in a row for Adam Hollioake’s team and two losses by an innings in three matches, with all-rounder Grant Stewart (49) the only Kent bright spark on day four.
After Zak Chappell (2-58) struck with the first ball of the day, Kent folded in feeble fashion, losing four wickets in eight overs to slump to 247-9 – the injured loanee Jake Ball unable to bat – as the visitors went down by an innings and 14 runs.
Kent’s slide to another defeat started when Tawanda Muyeye was caught behind, taking on a short ball from Chappell.
Muyeye clearly thought it had come off his shoulder but, given his side were still 104 runs behind with three wickets already down, it wasn’t a great shot for the situation.
That was a straightforward catch for Brooke Guest but the wicketkeeper took a much sharper one five overs later, standing up to Luis Reece (3-21) when Chris Benjamin edged into his gloves.
Kent’s hopes of at least frustrating Derbyshire now rested with Jack Leaning and Harry Finch but the pair were quickly parted, with Reece celebrating a second success of the morning.
Leaning failed to get over a drive and substitute fielder Nick Potts took a good tumbling catch diving forward at deep mid-off.
Derbyshire were now all over the visitors and, in the next over, Finch went to turn Anuj Dal (1-30) off his legs. The ball came off his thigh pad, though, and onto the stumps.
Matt Parkinson had resisted well as nightwatchman in the first innings but, this time, he lasted only seven balls before he went half forward to Jack Morley (1-14) and was lbw.
Stewart then struck some muscular blows, pulling Pat Brown for six and at least provided a bit of entertainment for Kent fans.
But the end came 15 minutes before the interval when he sliced the fast bowler to third man where Potts pulled off a superb diving catch.
“Disappointing,” reflected Kent head coach Adam Hollioake. “We were behind the run of the game from the beginning. We didn’t bowl well in the first hour and we know how important that is.
“And then scoreboard pressure, we weren’t able to contain them and, when a team gets 587 in the first innings, they’re not losing from there so we were just trying to bat to save the game.
“Scoreboard pressure and momentum is a real thing in professional sport, and I think that was the main thing here.”
Kent Spitfires will now switch their attention to the T20 Blast and will start their campaign against defending champions Gloucestershire in Bristol on Friday.
Hollioake added: “It doesn’t take a genius to work out that we’re not batting well enough and not bowling well enough so those are the things we are going to have to work on before we come back.
“We don’t play another four-day game until the last week in June (at Lancashire) so we’ve got a bit of a break from them now.”
