Including gradle task in Windows batch file kills script after task execution

Consider gradle-script.bat:

echo abc
gradle --no-daemon --version
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 6 > nul
echo def

Running gradle 2.11 on Windows 8.1, I never get to the ping or the second echo. The process terminates after gradle runs.

Is this understood to be how Gradle works in Windows, or is there something wrong with my configuration?

How does this behave? cmd /c gradle --no-daemon --version