THE adage that catches win matches seems all the more appropriate when a side suffers an outbreak of missed opportunities, as was the case with Kent throughout their four-day bore-draw with Nottinghamshire in Canterbury.

Rob Key’s side spurned eight chances in all over the last three days which, together with a slow and benign pitch, allowed Nottinghamshire to escape with a draw despite being made to follow-on 161 in arrears.

It all left Kent’s director of coaching Graham Ford a frustrated man, he moaned: “How can we expect to win games like these when our bowlers are having to create 28 opportunities to dismiss a side twice on such a flat pitch.”

Ford was right of course, but having seen England go down with a similar case of the ‘dropsy’s’ against Sri Lanka at Lord’s earlier in the summer, he will be hoping this was just an isolated Kentish outbreak.

In response to Kent’s mammoth 600 for six declared, their second highest total ever at St Lawrence, Nottinghamshire – having been gifted six lives on Thursday – went into Friday on 394 for seven needing a further 57 to avoid batting again.

Kent’s generosity in the field continued from the fourth ball of the final day when Amjad Khan ran one across Ryan Sidebottom’s flailing bat only for Darren Stevens to down the chance. It was the third catch Khan had seen go to grass in the game.

Luckily the hosts do have one capable slip catcher in Martin van Jaarsveld, and he took his summer’s tally to 17 when taking two in the space of three balls to account for Sidebottom and Greg Smith. It ensured Khan deservedly claimed season’s best figures of five for 100.

There was still time for Kent to juggle another one, this time Neil Dexter was the sinner at square-leg as Graeme Swann, with his score on 79, clipped off his legs.

This was Andrew Hall’s fourth dropped catch of the match and, even more frustratingly, it came with Nottinghamshire still 20 short of their follow-on target.

Eight runs later and with his dander up, Hall took it onto his own hands to polish off the innings by running one through the gate of Swann’s defensive push to peg back middle and leg stumps and make the visitors bat again.

Still trailing by 161 in the game, the East Midlands County had only 79 overs to survive which, on such a bland pitch, proved well within their compass.

Darren Bicknell cut one to slip soon after lunch, David Alleyne shouldered arms to a Simon Cook off-cutter and Jason Gallian lost his off-stump to a Dexter shooter, but the reality was Kent were never in the victory hunt.

By the time the skippers Stephen Fleming and Key shook hands on a draw Nottinghamshire had barely made good the deficit and the ground was nigh on empty.

It was a disappointing end to a dreary game, much of the blame for which goes to a turgid pitch and to Kent’s slopping catching.

At least Kent’s batsmen made good use of the wicket when it was at its best by posting their highest total at St Lawrence in 10 years.

There were hundreds from leading scorer van Jaarsveld, his second of the summer, and Matthew Walker, his first ever against Nottinghamshire which took seven-and-a-quarter hours.

David Fulton and Hall chipped in with contrasting half-centuries and there was time for a maiden championship ton for Dexter, who finished unbeaten on 131 having batted three-and-a-half hours.

The sadness was, Kent’s runs came so slowly that they missed out on a fifth batting bonus point and their 176-over innings, coupled with the spate of dropped catches ultimately cost them the chance of dismissing Nottinghamshire twice.

SCORECARD

Kent first innings

D P Fulton c Read b Sidebottom 65
R W T Key c Read b Ealham 31
M van Jaarsveld lbw b Shreck 108
M J Walker b Swann 141
S J Cook lbw b Sidebottom 8
D I Stevens c Smith b Shreck 7
N J Dexter not out 131
A J Hall not out 68

Extras 41

Total 600 for six declared after 176 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-72, 2-118, 3-305, 4-329, 5-534, 6-467.

Bowling: Sidebottom 32-10-76-2, Shreck 37-10-124-2, Smith 28-7-89-0, Ealham 29-3-97-1, Swann 46-7-152-1, Hussey 4-0-35-0

Nottinghamshire first innings

D J Bicknell c Patel b Khan 85
J E R Gallian c van Jaarsveld b Cook 7
D Alleyne b Hall 41
S P Fleming st O’Brien b Patel 51
D J Hussey lbw b Khan 32
C M W Read lbw b Hall 67
M A Ealham c van Jaarsveld b Khan 4
G P Swann b Hall 85
R J Sidebottom c van Jaarsveld b Khan 31
G J Smith c van Jaarsveld b Khan 0
C E Shreck not out 0

Extras 36

Total 439 all out 150.1 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-20, 2-109, 3-194, 4-194, 5-249, 6-293, 7-332, 8-414, 9-414

Bowling: Khan 36-11-100-5, Hall 31.1-5-100-3, Cook 22-7-66-1, Patel 45-6-103-1, Walker 4-1-6-0, Stevens 8-4-16-0, Dexter 3-0-16-0, van Jaarsveld 1-0-9-0.

Nottinghamshire second innings (following-on)

D J Bicknell c Hall b Patel 25
J E R Gallian b Dexter 42
D Alleyne b Cook 10
S P Fleming not out 63
D J Hussey not out 20

Extras 7

Total 167 for three declared after 70 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-46, 2-57, 3-132.

Bowling: Hall 5-1-6-0, Khan 6-2-12-0, Patel 20-6-44-1, Cook 8-1-18-1, Dexter 13-5-26-1, Walker 9-1-36-0, Stevens 4-0-7-0, van Jaarsveld 3-0-7-0, Fulton 1-0-3-0, Key 1-0-3-0.

Bonus points: Kent 10pts Nottinghamshire 9pts.