Kent lost their last six wickets for just 46 runs to lose their County Championship clash with Lancashire at Canterbury by an innings and five runs.

After a promising start to their second innings on day three, Kent lost three top-order wickets for four runs in the space of 19 balls before another flurry of wickets saw the visitors wrap up the win without the need to bat again.

Leg spinner Matt Parkinson took 7-126 - his best first-class figures - as Kent were all out for 351.

Kent's first task in the morning was to avoid any catastrophes before the second new ball - but they ended up losing three early wickets instead.

Skipper Daniel Bell-Drummond was first to fall, adding just six to his overnight score before playing on to Josh Bohannon for 114.

Parkinson then delivered a killer blow, taking two wickets in successive balls. Zak Crawley, who produced a more measured approach with the bat after his aggressive first innings knock, was lbw for 36 to a full toss that landed on his toe.

Then Jack Leaning was caught and bowled for a golden duck, lingering for several seconds before the umpires agreed the ball hadn’t bounced. It was Leaning's third duck in four innings following his pair against Yorkshire last week.

Joe Denly, who was dropped on five by Danny Lamb at mid-on, and Heino Kuhn steered Kent to 280-4 at lunch and were together for nearly two hours before both were removed by Lamb.

Kuhn was lbw for 32 and in Lamb's next over, Denly’s middle stump was sent flying as he was bowled for 31.

Darren Stevens went for a duck in the next over, caught by Rob Jones as he tried to drive Parkinson, and Kent had slumped from 305-4 to 311-7.

Matt Milnes was unable to recreate last week’s rearguard against Yorkshire, lasting 27 balls before he was lbw to Parkinson for 14, and Kent headed to tea on 345-8 with an innings defeat looking more than likely.

Fred Klaassen survived 43 deliveries as he hung around for an hour to make three but he could only give Steven Croft a simple bat-pad catch at silly point off Parkinson. Klaassen had an earlier reprieve when the ball hit his stumps from a Lamb delivery but failed to dislodge the bails.

Lancashire completed the win when Miguel Cummins was caught by Keaton Jennings at short leg for a duck to give Parkinson his seventh victim. Ollie Robinson was left unbeaten at the other end on 28, a vigil that lasted just under two hours before he ran out of partners.

Kuhn said: “We’re very disappointed, each and every one of us. Lancashire are one of the sides you really want to beat, but they played well, they played a lot better than us, so all the credit must go to them.

"They just outplayed us in 90 per cent of the game.

"There weren’t really any demons in the pitch, I wouldn’t say it was easy but I thought we (Kuhn and Denly) managed it well and (that’s why) we love to hate this game!

"It’s just one ball that changes the whole thing. You lose one and then you lose two or three and unfortunately that’s what happened to us.

"I don’t think we batted well enough in the first innings so it’s no use complaining about a couple of the (second innings) dismissals.

"We didn’t score enough runs in the first innings and we didn’t field well enough on day two."

Kent took just two bonus points from the game while Lancashire (22 points) moved to the top of Group 3 with the win.

After back-to-back home defeats, Kent will look for a change of fortune when they travel to Cardiff to meet Glamorgan from Thursday.

Read more: All the latest sports news in Kent