Hampshire heading for third after Kent clash is drawn

No play is possible for a second straight day at Canterbury as Kent's hopes of rounding off the campaign with a top-three finish end anticlimatically

Canterbury (fourth day of four): Kent 147, Hampshire 80-3 - Match drawn

Scorecard

For the second day running not a ball was bowled in Canterbury between Kent and Hampshire in the fight for third place in the Specsavers County Championship top flight.

Match umpires Ben Debenham and Ian Gould Inspected once the rain stopped at 2pm and deemed that the outfield was too sodden for any action to be safely undertaken.

The game will now go into its fourth and final day tomorrow (Thursday) when Hampshire will hope to resume on their first innings 80 for three in reply to Kent's 147 all out.

Kent’s final Specsavers County Championship match of the season against Hampshire ended as a damp squib in Canterbury after the fourth and final day was abandoned without a ball bowled.

Umpires Ben Debenham and Ian Gould, who had abandoned days two and three due to rain, had little option but to do the same. With the outfield sodden they called the game off just after 9.30am.

Dependant on the outcome of events at Headingley in the match between Yorkshire and Warwickshire, the draw here means Hampshire are likely to take the £88,000 cheque as third-placed finishers.

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Kent’s head coach Matt Walker said: “It was all set up to be an exciting game, so it’s a great shame it’s had to end this way.

“We were coming into this off the back of two wins at Trent Bridge and Headingley, having set out stall out to win three out of three but sadly the weather had other ideas.

“To finish third would have been a really big statement for us and to finish behind two really good sides in Essex and Somerset. Not to be given the chance to do that by rain is really frustrating.

“We’ve played a day of cricket here and that’s about it, so there’s a feeling that the season has just drifted out, which is a shame for both these sets of players.

“We mustn’t forget how well we’ve finished this back end of the season though. Sure, this game will fade from the memory pretty quickly, but we won’t forget those amazing wins on the road against Notts and Yorkshire. We should be rightly proud of those performances.”

Courtesy of the ECB reporters network

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