A fluent century from Tawanda Muyeye guided Kent to a two-wicket victory over Gloucestershire on the final day of an absorbing Rothesay County Championship Division Two battle at the Seat Unique Stadium, Bristol.

The home side began the day by adding 11 runs to their overnight second innings total of 251 for nine, Ed Middleton last man out for 22, to set a victory target of 261. James Taylor claimed the final wicket for a return of four for 54 and match figures of 10 for 106 on his Kent debut.

Kent slipped to 24 for two before Muyeye followed up his 90 in the first innings with 108 off 129 balls, receiving good support from Daniel Bell-Drummond (38) and Chris Benjamin (42) as their side posted 261 for eight. Gabe Bell claimed four for 87.The visitors took 21 points from their second Championship victory of the season, while Gloucestershire had to settle for five from a fourth defeat in five matches.

Play began in overcast conditions and Bell quickly boosted Gloucestershire’s total with successive boundaries off Keith Dudgeon before Middleton played across the line to Taylor and edged to Sam Northeast at second slip.

It meant career-best match figures for 25-year-old Taylor, making the first appearance of a two-match loan from Surrey. But, on an excellent pitch still rewarding good batting and bowling, Kent knew they faced a challenging task to score the required runs.

They had progressed to 22 in the fifth over when Ben Dawkins drove at a full ball from Bell and was well caught low down at point by Ben Charlesworth. Two runs later Zak Crawley, on 17, departed in disappointing fashion, bowled by Bell aiming a big shot into the leg side.

Gloucestershire hopes of pressing home their advantage were then thwarted by Northeast and Muyeye, the latter going on the counter-attack to strike 3 fours in a Matt Taylor over. Will Williams finished a testing six-over opening spell with figures of one for nine, but by the time rain interrupted play at 12.35pm Kent had advanced to 64 for two from 18 overs, with Muyeye on 32.

Northeast was on only four and the second ball of the resumption at 1.45pm saw him pinned lbw pushing half forward to Williams. With the floodlights shining brightly under dark clouds, Kent’s middle order faced a tough assignment.

Muyeye went to his second fifty of the match, off 60 balls, with 9 fours, having looked in confident form from the start. He found an equally solid partner in skipper Bell-Drummond and the pair gradually put their team in a strong position.

Bell-Drummond hit six crisp boundaries before being bowled pushing forward defensively to Bell. At 146 for four, Kent still required 115 and a compelling game was back in the balance.

Both Muyeye and Benjamin had looked in good nick in the first innings and again they tilted things Kent’s way by moving the score to 173 for four at tea. The final session saw Muyeye bring up an entertaining hundred with his 17th four, guided through backward point off Williams.

Having narrowly missed out on three figures in the first innings, the 25-year-old leapt up and punched the air before raising both bat and helmet towards the skies. But the job wasn’t done when he perished soon afterwards, caught behind driving at Matt Taylor.

At 204 for five, Kent still needed 57. That had become 30 when Benjamin’s second important innings of the game came to an end, bowled by Bell off an inside edge. Ekansh Singh made 18 before being caught at short mid-wicket off Williams and Dudgeon departed to a poor shot, skying a top-edge off the same bowler, before Joey Evison and Taylor saw Kent over the line.

Taylor hit the winning boundary off Williams to complete a match he will long remember.

Kent were deducted three points for a slow over rate and took 18 points instead of 21 from the game.

Kent head coach Adam Hollioake said: “What pleased me most about our performance was winning. It has been hard for us over the last years. I think we won two games last season and none going into the fourth match.

“So, to win two in a row is very pleasing. The object of game is to win, but other than that I am most pleased with the way the boys have shut all the noise out.

“It has been well publicised how I closed all the social media down at the club. We have focussed fully on what we have been doing and I think we are getting rewarded for that.

“I’m probably the most unpopular man in Kent, but I can live with that. I talk to the guys about keeping clear minds, saying your mind is like an Iphone and the more thoughts you have it is like having all the apps open on your phones.

“The fundamentals of playing cricket have been the same for 200 years and shutting out all the noise and negativity helps focus on them. We are not the best side in the world, but it’s an improvement.” 

Gloucestershire wicketkeeper James Bracey said: “We are trying to focus on the progress we have made since our opening two games, which is immense.

“That doesn’t mean we are not gutted at losing four of the first five. This defeat is disappointing because we were ahead at periods of the game and couldn’t drive home the advantage.

“That applied particularly to our first innings batting. We were in a position to do to Kent what opponents had done to us in our first two matches.

“Because we failed to do that, today was pretty much neck-and-neck. They got away from us a bit in the afternoon, but we stuck at it and it ended up a very close game.”