Draw County are unable to force a win after final-day declaration

GLOUCESTERSHIRE were left to rue an over-cautious declaration as their Rothesay County Championship with Kent ended at Canterbury in a draw.

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Tom Price almost single-handedly injected life into the final day by reducing Kent to 49-4 with 22 overs remaining, but Kent dug in to reach 124-6, England’s Zak Crawley with an unbeaten 54 while Grant Stewart finished on 16 not out.

Head coach Mark Alleyne said: “From Gloucestershire’s point of view it was a really strong four-day performance I thought.

“Having had to make use of the pitch first, batting-wise when it was at its trickiest, it was a fantastic effort, from where we were with three down quite early and then to dominate and get to 470 we were in a strong position.

“We probably missed a couple of opportunities in their first innings, but then to back it up in the second innings, we batted well and took six wickets in their second innings, so it was a great effort over four days.

“We went in overnight, thinking what do we need to do try and win the game.

“We were going to take a lot of reflection from how the pitch played first thing in the morning. It looked pretty batter-friendly and that coupled with the experience of the game before where Kent batted well probably made us slightly more conservative than we would normally.

“A lot of things conspired, like losing our strike bowler (de Lange) so having played such good cricket we didn’t really want to give Kent any chance of getting in the game.

“At one stage he (de Lange) was going to bowl in the second innings but we decided not to take the risk. He seems quite happy that it’s nothing too serious.”

Gloucestershire set a notional target of 413 to win from 41 overs, after declaring on 335-5, Miles Hammond making 89, Graeme van Buuren 58 and Ollie Price 56. Tom Price finished with figures of four for 33.

Gloucestershire resumed on 112-2, a lead of 191 and Hammond passed 50 from 79 deliveries while Price was more pedestrian, taking 116 balls to reach the landmark.