Kent batters make sure of draw against Worcestershire

Kent survived some occasional alarms to bat out a draw with Worcestershire on the final day of their County Championship match at Canterbury.

The captains shook hands just after 17:00 BST, with Kent on 146-4 in their second innings, still 65 runs behind Worcestershire’s mammoth first-innings score of 618-7 declared.

Ben Gibbon claimed 2-38, but the visitors used nine different bowlers during Kent’s second innings and failed to break down some stiff middle-order resistance, spearheaded by Harry Finch who was unbeaten on 48.

Jack Leaning had earlier made an unbeaten 179 as Kent were all out for 407 in their first innings, still 211 behind, with Joe Leach taking 3-37 and Matthew Waite 3-51.

The loss of Zak Crawley for 10 early in Kent’s second innings suggested the game might yet flicker into life.

It was 18-1 at lunch, before Gibbon then strangled Ben Compton down the leg side for 11 and Nathan Smith had Joe Denly lbw for 10, reducing Kent to 36-3.

Daniel Bell-Drummond and Harry Finch calmed home nerves by surviving until tea, at which point it was 104-3, but visiting hopes flared again when Gibbon clean bowled the former for 41.

Joey Evison joined Finch and took the sting out of the contest, however, batting for nearly an hour and facing 47 balls on his way to an unbeaten eight.

When Rob Jones became the ninth Worcestershire bowler to try and break through it was a sign the end was nigh, and the teams eventually shook hands with potentially 16 overs remaining.