County Championship: Durham 10th-wicket pair put on 158 in draw at Kent

A century from Ben Raine helped Durham to a draw in their County Championship Division Two match with Kent at Beckenham.

At one point Durham looked likely to have to follow on when they were reduced to 288-9.

Ekansh Singh and Matt Milnes both took three wickets, while James Taylor bowled England captain Ben Stokes for 45.

However, a last wicket of stand of 158 between Raine and Callum Parkinson, who was unbeaten on 54, killed any lingering hopes of a home win.

Raine, Durham’s top scorer, was finally dismissed for 106 and he then donned the wicketkeeper’s gloves and caught Ben Dawkins off Graham Clark as Kent’s second innings lasted ended on 1-1 after 1.3 overs.

The draw always looked the likeliest outcome, after a leaky cover meant no play was possible on day three, but play started on time and David Bedingham had added only two to his overnight score before he edged Milnes to Tawanda Muyeye at second slip for 74.

Stokes was on 12 when he edged James Taylor, but a diving Keith Dudgeon could not reel in the chance and he was dropped again, on 34, by wicketkeeper Chris Benjamin, when he edged Taylor down the leg side.

After Kasey Aldridge went for 36, edging Taylor to Muyeye, Stokes was bowled by Taylor off a bottom edge.

Kent’s hopes flickered in the final scheduled over before lunch, when Matthew Potts skied Ekansh Singh and was taken by Benjamin for 23, but they could not take the final wicket in the extra eight overs and Durham were 322-9 when lunch was taken.

Callum Parkinson hit his twin brother Matt for a couple of boundaries either side of the interval and Raine took two from Milnes to pass 50.

The last wicket pair batted for over an hour after the resumption and had just taken Durham past the follow-on target when the players went off for rain.

An early tea was called, after which Raine dumped Parkinson for a six over square leg.

Durham’s previous record 10-wicket stand against Kent was 109 by Michael Foster and Steve Harmison at Canterbury in 1998, and with Kent unable to break the partnership, Dudgeon came on as a spinner and even Zak Crawley turned his arm over.

Raine took three from Ben Dawkins to reach his century and Parkinson hit the same bowler to bring up his second first-class 50.

The innings was finally wrapped up when Matt Parkinson bowled Raine, who then donned the gloves for the visitors – and caught Dawkins for a duck off Clark. At this point Kent declared and the teams agreed on the draw.