A battling unbeaten century from Martin van Jaarsveld failed to prevent Kent from slipping to a 95-run defeat against fellow LV= County Championship Division 1 strugglers Warwickshire at Edgbaston on Thursday.

Chasing an unlikely victory target of 324, Kent resumed day three on 131-5 but slumped to 161-9 before van Jaarsveld (110 not out) and Matt Coles (13) added 67 or the last wicket to delay the home side.

The result - in a match which saw 35 wickets fall in the first six sessions - left Kent in the bottom two and facing an immediate return to Division 2, with only matches against Hampshire and Yorkshire to come.

A stand of 118 between home last-wicket pair Ant Botha (76) and Imran Tahir (69) proved decisive after Warwickshire thad collapsed to 107-7 after electing to bat on day one.

Darren Stevens (3-63) and Matt Coles (3-49) were the most successful Kent bowlers but the visitors’ reply began disastrously when Joe Denly was bowled shouldering arms to the first ball of the innings, .

Rob Key, van Jaarsveld (pictured), Geraint Jones and Stevens also collected ducks and it was left to young duo Alex Blake (33) and Sam Northeast (32) to give Kent some measure of respectability as they were hustled out inside 32 overs for 111.

Twenty-one-year old Chris Woakes (6-52) and Neil Carter (3-46) did the bulk of the damage with Coles (13) and Tredwell (12) the only other Kent players to make double figures.

Leading by 183 runs Warwickshire opted not to enforce the follow on but Kent’s bowlers hit back on day two, with Stevens (4-38) and Azhar Mahmood (4-51) reducing them to 54-8 only for ninth wicket pair Woakes (51) and Carter (26) to add 72 and see the total up to 140.

That left Kent chasing 324 for victory, but they quickly slumped to 36-4 before van Jaarsveld and Jones addded 95.

Jones (41) fell leg before to the final ball of the second day, and despite those last-wicket heroics by van Jaarsveld and Coles, Kent were bowled out a quarter-of-an-hour before lunch..

Woakes finished with 5-45, giving him match figures of 11-97, while Carter took 5-60.

Warwickshire took 21 points and Kent just three, leaving them 18 adrift of their Midlands rivals.