[Ska'dForLife-WBA]

Day Four

Morning: A new week began with summer still in the air at Canterbury, and Joe Leach made the first of the day's twelve required breakthroughs having Nathan Gilchrist caught for 12. Another picturesque looping leg-break from Kashif Ali turned off a good length, beat Matt Parkinson's forward defensive and removed his off-stump for 2 to wrap up the first Kent innings on 407 - Jack Leaning contributing an unbeaten 179 of them - which allowed the follow-on to be enforced, and when Jason Holder had Zak Crawley caught behind for 10, things were looking good. But taking lunch on 18-1, the hosts still had the luxury of knowing that three wickets per session would see them home safely.

Afternoon: Hope sprang eternal for Worcestershire with Ben Gibbon having Ben Compton strangled down leg for 11, soon followed by Joe Denly LBW for 10 to Nathan Smith, but the double breakthrough failed to turn into a collapse as Daniel Bell-Drummond and Harry Finch reached tea unscathed on 104-3.

Evening: It would have been a truly memorable session that produced a positive result from such a stalemate, and alas, only Gibbo beating Bell-Drummond's outside edge and clipping the top of off-stump for 41 lit up the last hour before the captains shook hands on a sporadically entertaining but ultimately frustrating draw.

Match DRAWN

The Verdict: After a fortnight of unimaginable tragedy, there was a clear and obvious need for Worcestershire to get out on the field and put in a performance that would pay just the smallest crumb of honour to Josh Baker's memory; on that front, the players did all that the pitch would allow and are to be applauded for their efforts. With Surrey up next, the empty wins column is liable to be looking very troubling a week from now barring something truly special happening down at the Oval, but for the time being the team are giving it all that we - and the young man who wore number 33 - could ever have asked.