Jack Leaning’s hundred and a stubborn last-wicket partnership helped Kent rescue a draw against Hampshire on the final day of their Vitality County Championship clash at Canterbury.
Resuming on 70-0, Kent were all out for 338 in their second innings – leaving Hampshire to chase 143 from just nine overs.
It was always an improbable task and bad light curtailed any dramatic twist in the day as they came off at 24-1 after 2.4 overs.
Still 126 behind at the start of the day, Kent lost Tawanda Muyeye when he edged the fourth ball of the morning from Kyle Abbott (4-66) to Toby Albert at second slip and was out for his overnight score of 46.
Abbott then removed Ben Compton for 25, again caught by Albert, before Muhammad Abbas (3-69) took two wickets in nine balls. A distraught Daniel Bell-Drummond was lbw for 23, before Joe Denly saw his off stump pinged back for five.
Abbott returned to get Joey Evison for 11, caught at slip by James Vince to leave Kent 138-5 just before lunch.
However, Leaning and Harry Finch then batted out the entire afternoon session, with only one serious alarm. Leaning was on 34 when he drove Brad Wheal straight to extra cover, but the ball hit Tom Prest in the stomach and fell to the floor.
The hosts reached a far healthier looking 268-5 at tea, at which point the lead was 72 with 37 overs remaining.
Hampshire’s hopes now hinged on the new ball and although Leaning glanced a single off Abbott to bring up his third championship hundred of the summer, he was lbw to Abbas in the next over, ending a record sixth-wicket partnership for Kent against Hampshire and reigniting the contest.
Wheal replaced Abbott at the Pavilion End and immediately had Charlie Stobo caught by Tom Prest for 17 at short mid-wicket. Abbott switched ends and got Matt Parkinson for seven and George Garrett went for four, caught behind off Wheal in the next over to leave Kent 326-9.
Singh, however, managed to linger for 27 balls in a crucial last-wicket partnership with Finch that ate up 11 overs in over 40 minutes. The stand ended when Finch inexplicably tried to hook James Fuller and he was caught at first slip by Vince for 79.
Hampshire sent out Vince and James Fuller for the chase. Vince was bowled by Garrett for 11 in the gathering gloom and although Liam Dawson hit a six and a four off the next two balls, the umpires took the players off before they shook hands on the draw.
With Lancashire and Nottinghamshire both losing, Kent’s likely relegation is still not mathematically confirmed. They host Nottinghamshire at Canterbury from Tuesday.
Leaning said: “We probably needed to win this game but if we couldn’t win it we needed to get a decent draw so we’ll take 11 points. Hopefully, some results elsewhere will go our way and we can win the last two games to get a happy ending to the season.
“We quite like batting together to be honest (Finch). We spend enough time together off the field so it makes sense that we enjoy batting together. (The plan was) just to see where the game took us really, the nature of the pitch was quite slow, it wasn’t particularly easy to score when they hit their lines.
“They set some good fields and obviously they’re a very good team as well, but as they got through the innings they changed their tactics, which allowed us to score more easily.
“We got told at tea that it was looking like (Notts and Lancs) were both going to get beat, so it altered the game slightly. There was talk about trying to set a game up because obviously they’re in the hunt, or they were in the hunt, to win the league, especially with the result down at Taunton but it didn’t quite fall that way.”
