Kent suffered their third defeat of the season after collapsing on the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Northamptonshire at Canterbury on Thursday.

Last-man Matt Quinn survived for over half an hour before he was finally dismissed by Rob Keogh with just 10 minutes of the game remaining.

It meant Kent lost their last six wickets for just 24 runs.

Spinners Keogh and Simon Kerrigan led Northamptonshire to victory, taking 5-31 and 5-43 respectively, after they’d declared on 396-8, setting Kent a target of 365 from 74 overs. Ryan Rickelton was their top scorer with 133, while George Linde took three for 41.

The draw had looked the most likely result at the start of play, but Kent collapsed from 64-0 midway through the afternoon session to 161 all out.

The visitors began day four with a lead of 252, when the most realistic hope of a meaningful contest seemed to hinge on Kent taking early wickets with the new ball. Although Lewis McManus added just a single to his overnight score of four when he was strangled down the leg side by Matt Milnes, Rickelton and Luke Procter responded with a 72-run stand.

The partnership was initially cautious, but once the lead was over 300 the visitors started to swing.

When Rickelton was eventually stumped after charging down the wicket to Linde, Kerrigan came in and reverse swept Jack Leaning for six. His 10-ball cameo ended when he skied Linde to Daniel Bell-Drummond at deep mid-wicket and was caught for 22.

Set 365, Zak Crawley and Ben Compton batted cautiously for the seven overs through to lunch and showed little appetite for the chase after it.

Crawley lasted for just over an hour after the restart but when he was caught behind off Kerrigan, wickets began to tumble. Kerrigan removed Bell-Drummond for one, caught at first slip by Jimmy Neesham, and the visitors’ hopes soared when the same bowler had Ben Compton caught by Emilio Gay at short leg for 34.

Rog Keogh then trapped Joe Denly lbw for five, at which point Kent had lost four wickets for 24 and still had another 41 overs to survive.

It was 96-4 at tea and although Jordan Cox and Jack Leaning put together a useful stand of 49, Kerrigan bowled the former for 31.

Leaning and Sam Billings looked to be taking Kent towards safety when Kerrigan took two wickets in four balls. Leaning played on to Rob Keogh and was bowled for 26 and Linde went in the same over, lasting only three balls before he tried to sweep Keogh and was caught by Neesham for a duck, leaving Kent in deep trouble on 144-7 with 16 overs remaining.

In his next over Keogh bowled Grant Stewart for a duck and Kerrigan then had Milnes caught, by Josh Cobb in the slips, also without scoring. That left Quinn at least 11.5 overs to survive with Billings.

They survived to that landmark, but with Northamptonshire rattling through the overs, there was still another 10 minutes in hand and having successfully deadbatted 37 deliveries, Quinn was finally caught at short leg by substitute fielder James Sales.