Kent skipper Rob Key labelled the England and Wales Cricket Board pitch panel convened at Durham's Riverside ground "a bit of a muppet show" in a strongly-worded attack following his side's defeat.

Key's team followed their first innings of 78 by being dismissed for 133 this morning to lose by 43 runs - and the former England batsman felt it was "an absolute disgrace" no points were deducted.

"The integrity of the rest of the championship is at stake," he said. "I'm not saying Durham deliberately prepared a bad pitch, but if there's no penalty they and other teams with strong seam attacks will always want these sort of pitches.

"The game is going to be a shambles and we won't produce Test cricketers. The pitch panel asked all the usual questions but apparently they think there was nothing wrong with the pitch. It's not sour grapes because I would have said the same if we'd won.

"It's ridiculous and I can't say how bad we feel about it. Even Shivnarine Chanderpaul couldn't score runs on that pitch. If the ECB are not going to do anything about pitches like that why waste money sending inspectors round the country?"

Kent were also the visitors on the only other occasion on which a pitch panel has been convened in Durham. That was at Stockton two years ago, when Key also made scathing remarks, even though his side topped 400 in their second innings.

Umpire John Holder said today: "The ball has swung consistently and sometimes it has slipped off the seam. But there has been no extravagant movement or variable bounce.

"There has been moisture around after all the rain, but there was no obvious sign of moisture in the pitch. It was a typical Durham pitch but for some inexplicable reason the ball has nipped around."

Durham skipper Dale Benkenstein said: "Both times we have had a pitch panel in my four years here Kent have been involved. They are used to playing on good pitches in the south."

After 15 wickets fell in two sessions on the first day, Phil Sharpe was joined by fellow pitch liaison officer David Hughes and the ECB's chief pitches advisor Chris Wood.

They saw a further 23 wickets go down yesterday, and Kent had two wickets standing with 61 runs still needed to win today.

They added 17 runs in 30 minutes before Martin Van Jaarsveld fell for the game's top score of 53. He went to drive a ball from Mark Davies that was not full enough for the shot and spooned a catch to mid-off, although Key blamed the "two-paced" nature of the pitch.

In the next over Callum Thorp had Martin Saggers lbw to clinch a win that takes Durham back to the top of the table, at least until Nottinghamshire complete their match at Taunton.

Davies' five for 24 gave him match figures of 10 for 45 - his first 10-wicket match haul.

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