KENT made the best of cooler, overcast conditions in Canterbury to wrap up an emphatic 194-run win over relegation threatened Northamptonshire. Simon Cusden played a big part in the early finish.

Misty conditions assisted all the Kent seamers as the basement side in Frizzell Division 1 lost six wickets in the morning session and their last seven for 102 runs to slip to their 10th defeat of a disappointing campaign.

Only their skipper David Sales offered much last day resistance with a stoic 92, but otherwise Northamptonshire capitulated.

In ideal seam bowling conditions it was spin bowler Min Patel who got the ball rolling for the hosts by removing former England batsman Usman Afzaal without addition to his overnight 41.

Playing back to one that turned and kept low, Afzaal went leg before to make it 285 for four as the visitors set about their improbable victory target of 582.

The second new ball provided the spark for Northamptonshire’s collapse by providing Kent’s pace bowlers with the additional swing and seam movement they needed to polish the job off.

With his sixth ball of the day Amjad Khan dipped one in to right-handed Gerard Brophy who padded up to go leg before for 20.

Five overs later Graeme Swann, who joins Nottinghamshire next summer, top-edged an attempted pull against Rob Joseph to send substitute wicketkeeper Richard Piesley scurrying toward long leg where he held a magnificent running, diving catch in one glove.

In the next over down the Nackington Road slope Cusden bowled Ben Phillips with a shooter and, next ball, feathered Johann Louw’s outside edge to give Piesley a regulation catch behind the stumps.

Next man Steffan Jones survived Cusden’s hat-trick attempt but, in the England Under-19 bowlers next over, he missed an off cutter to lose his middle stump.

Cusden finished it 39 balls after lunch when he had Sales caught off a top-edge as he attempted to hook to give the former St Lawrence and Highland Court youngster career-best figures of four for 68.