Kent face an uphill struggle to avoid a heavy defeat at Warwickshire on the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 clash.

The hosts moved the game on at great pace on Saturday and enforced the follow-on before removing England opener Zak Crawley for the second time in the day.

Kent's first innings was cut down by a superb collective effort by the Bears' seam attack. All five seamers took wickets as Hassan Ali led the way with 3-36 and England’s Chris Woakes picked up two wickets in his first championship match for 19 months.

After Warwickshire resumed on the third morning on 367-3, Sam Hain and Dan Mousley extended their partnership to 179 against ultra-defensive fields. With Kent a bowler down - Matt Quinn was off the field nursing the groin injury he collected on the first day - there were times when all nine outfielders were on the boundary.

Runs still came freely and Mousley collected his fourth six with a breathtaking ramp over the keeper’s head off Conor McKerr before falling six short of a maiden first class century when he hoisted spinner Jack Leaning to long on.

Hain (165 not out) and Michael Burgess added a swift 39 from 31 balls to take Warwickshire to maximum bating points at which point they declared to make the earliest possible start on the pursuit of 20 Kent wickets.

Chris Rushworth delivered the first two in a textbook new-ball spell as he trapped Crawley lbw for a sixth-ball duck and then also pinned Ben Compton in front.

When Joe Denly nicked an Ali outswinger to wicketkeeper Burgess, Kent were 63-3. Daniel Bell-Drummond survived a nervous start to unfurl some attractive strokes on his way to 40 but perished just after tea when he sliced a steeply lifting Ali delivery to gully. Ed Barnard then ousted Jack Leaning, caught at point.

At 86-5, Kent needed serious shoring up and Jordan Cox and Sam Billing put down some roots in a stand of 24 but a lapse in judgment from Cox triggered another clatter. The 22-year-old left one from Olly Hannon-Dalby which hit off-stump to trigger the loss of the last five wickets for 48 runs.

Kent’s implosion earned them the unwelcome prospect of an awkward 12 overs to bat second time round. Crawley’s unhappy day continued when he suffered an arguable lbw decision against Rushworth before, much to Kent’s relief, bad light lopped off the last four overs.

Kent coach Simon Cook said: "It was a tough day, there’s no doubt about that and we’ve got a little bit of work to do tomorrow.

"We have got to take a positive outlook in terms of building small partnerships and then those partnerships turn into big partnerships and then the day gets a bit easer as we go through.

"If you look at the massive picture to start with, 300 runs behind, the task can seem a bit daunting but if we break it down into smaller chunks, and just keep winning small sessions and trying to put pressure back onto Warwickshire, we should be able to come out of this game with some points, dust ourselves down and head on to Essex.”