Kent's rain-hit LV County Championship Division One match with Sussex petered out into a draw at Canterbury this afternoon.

After just two full days' cricket, with a loss of 169 overs, the captains agreed to call off play at 4.50pm.

Kent ended their second innings on 14 for one - with 19 overs remaining on the final day - after champions Sussex earlier declared on 300 for eight, conceding a 50-run first-innings deficit.

Resuming their first innings on 57 for one today, Sussex lost their second wicket on 81 when Ragheb Aga was held low at backward point off Yasir Arafat in the eighth over of the morning.

Michael Yardy, who was on 19 overnight, began defensively while his new partner Chris Adams cut loose. The Sussex captain got off the mark first ball when he cut Arafat for four.

Yardy soon started to play his strokes, driving Arafat to the mid-wicket boundary to bring up his team's 100 and take his own score to 37.

Arafat was replaced by James Tredwell, whom Adams lifted for six over long-on.

In the following over, the batsman reverse-swept Tredwell for four to reach 26 from 29 balls before Robbie Joseph found the outside edge of his bat for a catch to second slip.

Yardy (42) did not last much longer as, four overs later, after three hours at the crease, he went back and across his stumps to Joseph, who trapped him lbw to leave the visitors on 133 for four.

The next over, the 45th, brought Kent another wicket, with Matthew Prior beaten and bowled by the off-spin of Tredwell for one.

Sussex had lost three wickets in five overs for just 12 runs and were 136 for five.

A stand of 105 in 25 overs between Murray Goodwin and Carl Hopkinson revived the innings.

They both reached half-centuries, with Goodwin's coming from 81 balls, while his partner had faced 84 deliveries when he steered Darren Stevens to the third-man boundary to reach 53.

He had been dropped earlier behind the stumps on 43 off Arafat.

Hopkinson had faced 17 balls before getting off the mark but after lunch he had scored briskly, lifting Tredwell twice for six over long-on.

The sixth-wicket partnership ended when Joseph returned for a second spell after lunch to remove Goodwin's leg stump as the batsman attempted a big drive.

Kent claimed the second new ball after 80.2 overs and, four deliveries in, Ryan McLaren ended Hopkinson's innings of 69 from 117 balls when he uprooted his off stump.

The bowler repeated the feat to dismiss Robin Martin-Jenkins (one) in the 85th over on 292. Sussex declared eight runs later, denying Kent a third bowling point.

Joseph finished with three for 53, while McLaren's three for 42 made him Division One's joint leading wicket-taker with 26 along with Charl Willoughby of Somerset.