ABSOLUTE humiliation for Derbyshire came as they were crushed by nine wickets in their Pro40 League match against Kent at Canterbury yesterday.

The Phantoms were bowled out for 60 – their lowest-ever total in any one-day competition.

The game was all over in two and a quarter hours, which is less time than it takes to play a game of Twenty20 and considerably less than it took to drive from Derby for the few who made the trip.

Every team is entitled to a bad day every now and again but the extent of Derbyshire's capitulation at Canterbury should leave them feeling utterly ashamed.

Their batting – after winning the toss, by the way – was dismal. Both openers were back in the pavilion within 10 balls of the start and in no time at all, the score was 28-6.

It certainly did not help their cause that they lost Dan Birch to a back spasm and Ian Hunter to a recurrence of his toe injury in the warm-ups but there was no excuse for this.

Maybe the decision to bat first was the wrong one but the indication was that Kent would have done the same – the difference was that you could be fairly sure the home side, even with a hangover from their defeat in Saturday's Friends Provident Trophy final, would not have collapsed so feebly.

Where was the application? Wavell Hinds and Rikki Clarke stayed together for eight overs after Chris Rogers had played on in the first over and Greg Smith was bowled in the second but four wickets for no runs in 13 balls left the innings in tatters.

Hinds and Clarke also clipped the ball onto their own stumps, Dominic Telo was lbw not offering a shot and Tom New nicked a catch to first slip. It was an astonishing sight to witness in the same way as some feel a morbid fascination at watching a car crash.

Robbie Joseph took four of the first six wickets and, when Graham Wagg clipped a shot straight to cover, the Antigua-born bowler was well on his way to 5-13 in eight overs. Unsurprisingly, they were his career-best one-day figures but he earned them far too easily.

There was practically no possibility of Derbyshire rescuing a respectable target from 37-7 and the end followed swiftly.

Jake Needham was the fifth Phantoms player to be bowled but Charl Langeveldt found a novel mode of dismissal as he was run out first ball by a street going for a second run while the ball was already safely in Martin van Jaarsveld's hands at cover.

The last man out was Jon Clare for 18 and not only was that the highest individual score of the Derbyshire innings, it was also his highest score in limited-overs cricket.

Somehow, it does not feel appropriate to celebrate the fact.

It was a matter of how quickly Kent chose to complete their victory and they managed to string it out for 9.4 overs.

The one moment of cheer for Derbyshire came when Needham leapt to hold an excellent catch at mid off one-handed and make sure the Spitfires did not win by 10 wickets.

It was a sweet moment for Needham, especially as he had been the target for ironic cheers from the crowd for dropping a much simpler chance off Rob Key in the third over.

But that was as good as it got for Derbyshire. It must have been a very quiet coach journey back for them – at least it should have been.