Nottinghamshire have thrashed Kent by ten wickets in the Vitality County Championship at Canterbury, condemning the hosts to relegation and boosting their own survival hopes into the bargain.

Jacob Duffy took four for 60 and Rob Lord three for 42 as Kent were dismissed for 230 in their second innings.

Joey Evison scored 42 to make Nottinghamshire bat again, but the target was a mere 23 and the visitors needed just 3.3 overs to chase it down, Ben Slater finishing on 22 not out with Haseeb Hameed unbeaten on six.

The result ends Kent’s wafer-thin chances of staying in the top flight, while Notts will stay up provided they avoid defeat in the final round of fixtures next week.

Kent began day three on 85 for 0, still 123 behind, but even their most pessimistic of fans, a title for which there is some fairly stiff competition this season, would have struggled to imagine a start as grim as this one.

Batting conditions were arguably the best they’d been, but they lost Tawanda Muyeye for 60 to the sixth ball of the morning, when he hit Duffy almost vertically and was caught by Dane Schadendorf.

His fellow opener Ben Compton was lbw to Lyndon James for 32 and Jack Leaning then swished at a short-pitched ball from Duffy and was caught behind for a third-ball duck.

Lord replaced James at the Nackington Road end and had Joe Denly caught by Freddie McCann in the slips for eight, with his third delivery, before Duffy sent Daniel Bell-Drummond’s off stump flying for 21.

In the next over, the 31st, Lord got Harry Finch for a second ball duck, the victim of a superb one-handed grab by Schadendorf.

Matt Parkinson made nine before Farhan Ahmed had him caught by McCann at leg slip but when Akeem Jordan then hit a boundary, a lone voice on the Old Dover Road sang: “We will make you bat again,” to the tune of “Bread of Heaven.”

His faith, at least, was rewarded.

Having begun the day with an over rate of minus four, Notts bowled spin from both ends to get themselves back level before lunch, at which point Kent had eroded the deficit to just 12.

Jordan creamed Duffy for six to bring up the 50 partnership and Evison swept Ahmed to bring the scores level, but Ahmed got Jordan lbw with the next ball for 32 and Duffy bowled Nathan Gilchrist for a third ball duck.

A sterile passage of play followed as the fielders stayed on the boundary when Evison had the strike, but as soon as Lord returned from the Pavilion end he had him caught by the sub fielder Patterson White at point.

With a minimum 145 overs to play with the only question remaining was how long it would take Notts to tick off the runs and Slater did it some style, pulling Jordan for six.

Notts take 23 points and Kent three.

Kent’s Daniel Bell-Drummond said: “It’s been a really tough season and today kind of summed where we are as a team this year and yeah, we started the day as optimistic as possible, getting the win was the only option we had and we had some good chats coming in to it, but yeah, we just fell apart in that first session this morning and it just wasn’t to be. It kind of sums up the season as a whole.

“We just haven’t been able to stop the slide and we haven’t been good enough to do it either. We didn’t get off to the worst start earlier in the season but once the defeats came it was quite hard to change that and we just haven’t been good enough with bat or ball all season really. The numbers show that.

“At the end of the day, this was coming. Obviously today it feels terrible, but the way we’ve been trending, it was heading this way. It was a good toss to win, we wanted a result wicket, which we got but we didn’t bowl very well at all in that first session. 140 for none on a flat wicket is not good enough. It’s been a trend with both bat and ball and to come into the game having scraped to a draw in the last game against Hampshire, get the toss you want and then to start like that was shocking really and yeah, it just sums up the season.

“It’s been tough, but at the end of the day I can only control what I can and that will need to improve in certain aspects. I can only score the runs that I score and I obviously got off to a good start, but that needs improve as well. I’m sure it’ll sink in going forwards. At the end of the day I’m captain and I’ll take it on, but it is tough to take. You can only control what’s in front of you and yeah, we haven’t been good enough.

“I’ve always been optimistic deep down and yeah, I massively believe in the guys in the changing room and my own abilities but definitely, on paper, with some of the injuries we’ve had and teams you come up against in Division One I’d be stupid not to think we’d be scrapping again and when you’re scrapping half the time it just wears you down and the valve breaks.

“I never want to predict negative times ahead, but obviously, without a doubt, I knew it was going to be a tricky season.”