Kent will hope rain washes out the final day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash with Essex after losing 14 wickets at Canterbury on Wednesday.

The hosts are struggling on 137-8, still 272 runs behind Essex after following-on, having been bowled out for just 164 in their first innings.

Only Jordan Cox, who remains unbeaten on 53 overnight having earlier scored 34, showed any kind of resistance with the bat.

Essex took the extra half-hour but they were unable to take the two remaining wickets, although play ended four minutes early due to bad light.

Cox said: “We’re disappointed, obviously, in how we batted. 160-something’s not good enough but we knew the wicket had something in it. Unfortunately our bowlers didn’t hit the right spots and theirs did, and they bowled very well to be fair to them.

"They got 500 and it seems a long way off. There’s a bit of fatigue for the first couple of wickets and then you’re into the middle-order straight away so it’s pretty disappointing, but we’ll try to bounce back.

“We had to try and get through tonight with me and Milnesy [Matt Milnes] and we managed to do so, so hopefully, tomorrow it rains a bit as we need it to!

"Milnesy’s unfortunately pretty much done for the year with a stress fracture. He’s struggling to move at the minute but obviously he’s taken a few pills and is getting on with it. It was a case of him taking one end and me taking the other, which he thought was more comfortable to face.

"We decided that with about 15 overs left, so I stayed down one end for seven overs and they ended up calling it for light, which was handy.

“If the rain doesn’t come, we’ll try and do our best to survive as long as we can, but we won’t go down without a fight, for sure.”

Play started after a 10-minute rain delay, with Kent resuming on 74-4. The score advanced to 105 when Jack Leaning was the first to fall, caught by Feroze Khushi at square leg off Sam Cook, for 34.

Skipper Sam Billings batted despite a groin injury, with Ben Compton acting as his runner, but he was visibly struggling and lasted just nine balls before he nicked Ben Allison (4-40) to Adam Rossington for a duck.

Allison removed Grant Stewart, who edged the seventh ball he faced behind for two, and Harry Podmore, made 13 before he became Rossington’s fifth victim of the innings.

Allison clipped the top of Cox’s off-stump before the rain returned, with Kent 145-9, ushering in an early lunch.

When play resumed, Matt Quinn tried to hit Shane Snater out of the ground and was bowled for seven to end a Kent effort that lasted just 50.2 overs.

Following on, Kent opener Ollie Robinson edged Cook behind for 15, before a second rain delay wiped out 19 overs.

Kent’s best hope of salvaging a draw lay in batting out the day and hoping a grim weather forecast for day four would prove accurate, but when play resumed, Cook hadn’t even completed his over before he’d removed Daniel Bell-Drummond for a second ball duck, again caught behind.

In Cook’s next over, he took wickets with successive deliveries, first getting Compton caught at second slip by Matt Critchley for seven, then getting Leaning caught for a golden duck by the same fielder. His 12 deliveries had seen Kent slip from 19-0 to 30-4.

Cook claimed his fifth wicket of the innings when Joe Denly tried to pull him and instead got a top edge that floated to Nick Browne at third slip. Stewart, promoted in the order, tried to drive Cook and was caught by Browne at mid off for six - Cook had all six wickets to fall at this stage and Kent were 68-6.

Podmore lingered for 46 balls for 10 before he was bowled by Jamie Porter and Essex looked like wrapping up the win inside three days when Billings chipped the same bowler to Tom Westley without score - his first-ever pair.

Cox reached his half-century shortly before the scheduled close and found an unlikely partner in Matt Milnes.

Having made 11 not out in 40 minutes first time around, Milnes lasted just over an hour by the close on his way to 12 not out as he put on 30 alongside Cox in 18 overs.