Kent’s brave last day victory pursuit ran out of time and steam at The Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence where Gloucestershire escaped with a scare and a draw after a rain-affected final day.

A heavy shower at 10am and the subsequent loss of 33 overs crucially impaired Kent’s chances of dismissing the West Country County inside the final day. But the hosts, who have now lost 633 overs to inclement weather this season, gave it their best shot.

Kent picked up three wickets in the opening session after play finally started at 1.45pm. Cameron Bancroft (18) and Chris Dent (27) were both caught in the cordon off Darren Stevens and Calum Haggett respectively. Then Haggett struck again to snare Gareth Roderick (11) lbw after the visiting skipper missed an off-cutter when attempting an airy, leg-side flick.

Kent will be left ruing a missed chance off the bat of first-innings top-scorer Hamish Marshall who, with his score on four, aimed a slash drive against Stevens only for Joe Denly to down a sharp chance to his right at third slip.

After tea Cockbain (32) sparred at one from Hunn to edge to Rouse to make it 111 for four, and Hunn ought to have struck again in identical fashion two balls later when George Hankins also nicked for the keeper only for umpire Russell Evans to call the bowler for a no ball for overstepping.

Two overs later Marshall departed for 20 when he nicked a leg-side flick against Hunn to the tumbling rouse and, with 25 overs still remaining, the visitors trailed by 19 runs.

Haggett got in the act again in the 43rd over by dismissing Hawkins for 12. Late in his decision to shoulder arms to an off-cutter, the ball glanced off the face of the Hawkins’ bat and through to Rouse.

Going into the final hour the visitors were only seven ahead with four wickets in hand, but then Kieran Noema-Barnett edged the first ball of a Mitch Claydon spell to keeper and Stevens plucked out the middle stump of Craig Miles to send him packing for a single.

Kent might have snatched a ninth wicket when Jack Taylor got an inside edge to one from Stevens but Rouse, stood up to the stumps, was unable to cling on.

Taylor (46*) and David Payne (20*) bravely stood firm thereafter and, with the visitors 70 runs ahead and with only five overs left in the match, the sides shook hands on a draw just after 6pm. Kent banked 12pts and Gloucestershire 10pts.

Kent captain Sam Northeast had nothing but praise for the efforts of his bowlers and their bid to force a final day win over Gloucestershire against all the odds.

“The overall emotion of the team right now is one of disappointment, but they shouldn’t feel that way really,” said the 26-year-old.

“We played all the cricket in this match and I was very pleased with the effort of all my bowlers today on what was a pretty flat fourth-day deck. They bent their backs and nearly got the result. If it wasn’t for that bit of rain this morning we would probably have got the victory.

“We’re near at the moment, playing some good cricket and have come a long way since the end of last year. It’s an open division and we still have everything to play for.”

Gloucestershire’s head Richard Dawson was less pleased with his side’s display over the four days in Kent however.

“The way Taylor and Payne got us through at the end was excellent, but that wasn’t how we wanted to finish the game,” said Dawson,

“We’ve obviously got to improve the contribution from our top-order batters. Only when we do that will we give ourselves a chance to drive games forward on the front foot, rather than having to fight to save games, which we’ve had to do in pretty much all our matches so far.

Result: Kent v Gloucestershire at Canterbury, May 8-11 2016:

Kent 478/8 declared (Northeast 189, Latham 90, Stevens 54) drew with Gloucestershire 337 (Marshall 112, Taylor 52; Haggett 3-66) & 211/8 (Taylor 46*; Haggett 3/27).

Kent: Bell-Drummond, Latham, Denly, Northeast*, Blake, Stevens, Rouse†, Haggett, Claydon, Riley, Hunn

Gloucestershire: Bancroft, Dent, Cockbain, Roderick*†, Marshall, Hankins, Noema-Barnett, Taylor, Miles, Payne, Shaw

Points: Kent 12, Gloucestershire 10

Full scorecard available here.