THE slow but sure descent towards defeat went on for Derbyshire on the morning of the third day in their LV County Championship match against Kent at Canterbury.
In a hopeless position overnight at 32-3 following on, still trailing by 186, Derbyshire found batting no easier as they reached lunch on 118-7.
Darren Stevens continued his domination of Derbyshire this season with three more wickets to take him to 5-46 in the innings, eight in the match and 13 this season against the county.
There was more evidence for the pitch inspectors to consider in their post-match meeting as Wayne Madsen (17) was first out in the morning to an Adam Riley ball that spun and bounced plenty to take the glove and go to leg slip.
Marcus North followed, lbw for 16 to a Stevens ball that kept low at 57-5, and Scott Elstone was caught behind off Stevens for 13 at 70-6.
Gareth Cross decided there was no point waiting for the ball that was going to get him out and hit two sixes and a four before he was lbw to Stevens for 21 at 102-7.
That left Alex Hughes (20) and David Wainwright (10) to take Derbyshire to lunch still needing 100 more runs to make Kent bat again.
