Kent moved off the foot of the County Championship Division 1 table as they salvaged a draw against Hampshire at Canterbury on Sunday.

Needing to bat out the final day, they did so with relative ease. Kent had reached 259-4 in their second innings by the close, largely thanks to Jack Leaning top scoring after openers Zak Crawley and Ben Compton had also contributed half-centuries.

Compton said: “We’re, obviously, very chuffed. Hampshire are a very strong side.

“Given our position in the first innings, I think we’ll be happy to take that draw, for sure.

“Credit to Jack, Coxy [Jordan Cox] and Zak for the way they played today.”

Indeed, Compton hit the first runs of the day off Kyle Abbott (0-21) with a cover drive for two.

The first hour wasn’t without its scares for Kent, though both openers remained. A clip for two through the legside off spinner Liam Dawson (2-31) saw Crawley to his half-century in the 43rd over before Compton followed suit in the next over with a boundary through the covers.

But the visiting breakthrough came in the 45th over when Crawley (56) was stumped by wicketkeeper Ben Brown off Dawson while Tawanda Muyeye was out in the same over. He was incredibly caught by Fletcha Middleton, fielding at silly point.

With the away team’s tails now up, Compton was adjudged lbw off the bowling of Keith Barker (2-60) for 54, his fourth score of 50 or more already of the summer, to leave Kent 126-3. Compton’s knock also saw him move beyond 2,000 club runs since his arrival in 2021.

That brought Kent skipper Sam Billings to the crease and he appeared intent to counter-attack, despite his recent poor form, striking three successive boundaries off Dawson in the 49th over.

He was unbeaten on 13 at lunch alongside Leaning (7 not out) as Kent were 146-3.

The afternoon session saw the pair take Kent within 100 runs of making Hampshire bat again, shortly after Billings and Leaning had brought up their 50-run partnership.

But Hampshire’s fourth wicket came when Billings was adjudged to have been trapped in front for 29 by Barker with Kent’s second-innings score on 182.

The second new ball was taken by the visitors but Leaning and wicketkeeper Cox, who had shared a record 423-run partnership three years ago, saw it off in extremely disciplined fashion. They had got to 202-4 by tea.

Hants were trying everything and had almost gone into T20 mode early by this stage, as they made bowling changes at regular intervals.

They used nine bowlers, including two overs worth 0-7 from captain James Vince.

But the 104th over saw Leaning move to his half-century with a hook through the legside before the duo made their way to a 50-run partnership soon after.

The game was brought to a close shortly after 5.30pm with Leaning 68 not out from 206 balls and Cox unbeaten on 30 from 130 balls.

Their fifth-wicket partnership was worth an unbroken 77 as Kent, who displayed textbook rearguard action, took eight points from the fixture.

Billings said: “We’re hugely satisfied [with the draw] after being bundled out in bowling-friendly conditions on the first day. I think it was a really good toss for them to win.

“We batted horrendously in that first morning, didn’t we? But the character shown, that’s where we threw the challenge out to all of us – with ball and bat.

“We know we didn’t quite hit our straps that evening session of day one.

“But we sat down as a bowling group and talked about how we want to go about things. We had that really clear focus and I thought you could see a marked improvement from that.

“They were 5-90 in that first session of day two effectively in the game [on Saturday after a rain-affected second day], going at less than three runs an over. We really controlled the game and got back into it.

“That was more of a template of how we want to go about our business, certainly with the ball.

“We know we haven’t been up to scratch with ball and bat, we’ve been really poor and had the odd glimmer of hope with the bat from Ben Compton and Zak. But it was time for other guys to step up.

“We saw that today. It’s really pleasing.

“It’s more pleasing around the character shown. That’s a heck of an effort against that bowling attack – regardless of the wicket – to get some sort of result out of that.

“It’s little steps but positive steps in the right direction.”

Kent leapfrog Northamptonshire but are second-bottom in the table, fellow early-season strugglers Somerset having drawn with Lancashire.