KENT continued their battle toward a Birmingham draw after reaching 255 for five, going into the final day of four against Warwickshire at Edgbaston.

Play was impossible on day three until 4pm after overnight rain left the run-ups awash, but when they did get underway Kent looked set to coast to the follow-on figure of 308 as openers Ed Smith and David Fulton posted a first wicket stand of 184.

But Smith fell five short of a century when he fell into Nick Knight’s trap by driving to short cover to march angrily off in the 42nd over of the reply.

Fulton reached three figures with a late dab to third man off the bowling of Mark Wagh from 170-balls and with 16 fours.

But without addition the Kent skipper advanced down the track to present Tony Frost with a stumping and give Wagh his revenge.

Kent’s mini collapse of three wickets for as many runs continued when Michael Bevan played across one from left-armer Neil Carter to go without scoring, then Matthew Walker nicked one to Jonathan Trott at slip to make it 231 for four.

Alex Loudon continued to show his growing maturity by scoring an unbeaten 27 through to stumps, but Matt Dennington fell in the final over of the day and in dreadful to a Heath Streak in-swinger for 16.

With just a day to go and forecasts for more rain on Saturday the draw seems the likeliest result as long as Kent score the 53 more runs needed to save the follow on.