County Championship: Kent battle to save game against Hampshire

Kent were battling hard to save their Division One status after being forced to follow on by Hampshire on a rain-affected third day in the County Championship at Canterbury.

The hosts could be relegated by the end of this round of fixtures, but they were 70 without loss in their second innings, still 126 behind, with Tawanda Muyeye unbeaten on 46 and Ben Compton 24 not out.

Earlier, Kyle Abbott took 5-46 as Kent were dismissed for 207 in their first innings, with Compton their highest scorer with 51.

Torrential rain fell during an already truncated evening session and play was eventually abandoned for the day at just before 17:30 BST.

Kent began day three on 64-5, still 339 runs behind Hampshire’s first innings score of 403, but Compton and Harry Finch survived for the first 90 minutes of an extended morning session.

Toby Albert dropped Compton twice, on 24 and 32, before he finally snared Compton at the third attempt when Abbott found his edge with the first delivery after he had switched to the Nackington Road End.

In his next over, Abbott had Finch caught behind for 44 before Liam Dawson bowled Charlie Stobo for 10.

Matt Parkinson was caught behind off Brad Wheal for four, but the last-wicket pair of George Garrett and Jas Singh proved a nuisance.

Singh passed his previous best first-class score of 14 before he was trapped in front by the new ball of Mohammad Abbas for 18, leaving his partner stranded on 27.

With 45 overs remaining in the day, Hampshire immediately enforced the follow on.

Muyeye smashed a six with the penultimate delivery before tea and with Hampshire not happy with the replacement ball, it caused a seven-minute delay when looking for the original.

Bad weather arrived to the loss of nine overs and when play resumed at 17:05, it was raining again as Compton faced down three balls from Abbas before coming back off and forcing an early finish.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters’ Network.