Kent’s Rothesay County Championship Division Two match with leaders Durham ended in the expected draw at Beckenham.
At one point, Durham looked likely to follow on after Kent reduced them to 288-9.
But last-pair Ben Raine and Callum Parkinson saw them beyond that target and almost to maximum batting bonus points as Kent’s attention turned to avoiding any points deduction for a slow over rate.
Kent captain Daniel Bell-Drummond said: “We approach every game trying to win it. Of course, Durham are doing very well, but coming off two wins, we were hoping to get another win, but for different reasons, we weren’t able to force that through.
“They played quite well today with the bat, batted us out of the game, but it was a good draw and both teams got points, so there’s a lot of positives to take.
“The guys really worked hard with the ball. James Taylor’s been excellent on his loan spell with us and Matt Milnes coming back was brilliant too.
Ekansh Singh picked up some crucial wickets and Matt Parkinson did some hard yards into the wind up the hill, so it was a pretty complete performance.
“We couldn’t get the last wicket, unfortunately, and as the day started to run on, we knew there was only one result possible. The last three games have been really good.
“I think we’ve got some quality in the squad and it’s just about getting the confidence up and starting to win games of cricket.”
After a leaky cover meant no play was possible on day three, play began on time and Kent struck early when David Bedingham edged Matt Milnes to Tawanda Muyeye at second slip for 74.
Ben Stokes was on 12 when he edged James Taylor, but a diving Keith Dudgeon couldn’t reel in the chance and he was dropped again, on 34, a difficult chance for wicket-keeper Chris Benjamin, when he edged Taylor down the leg side.
After Kasey Aldridge went for 36, edging Taylor (2-51) to Muyeye, Stokes was bowled by Taylor when he played on.
In the final scheduled over before lunch, Matthew Potts skied Ekansh Singh (3-62) and was taken by Benjamin for a quickfire 23, but Kent couldn’t 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 (3-76) to pass fifty.
The last wicket duo 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 tenth-wicket stand against Kent was 109 (by Michael Foster and Steve Harmison at Canterbury in 1998). Kent turned their attention to a slow over rate, with Muyeye bowling in tandem with Matt Parkinson, Dudgeon bowling an over of leg spin and Zak Crawley even turned his arm over.
Raine took three from Ben Dawkins to reach his century and Callum Parkinson hit the same bowler to bring up his second first-class half-century.
The innings was finally wrapped up when Matt Parkinson (1-129) bowled Raine for 106 – their stand put on 158 and took Durham to 446 all out.
Kent had only minutes left to bat before the inevitable handshakes on the draw. Durham struck in the second over when Graham Clark found the edge of Dawkins’ bat and he was caught behind by Raine, who had taken the gloves, for a duck.
Sam Northeast came out to join Crawley but didn’t face a ball as the teams agreed on the draw.
Report via ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay
