Kent 102 for 2 trail Nottinghamshire 350 (Slater 100, Moores 94, Singh 4-87) by 248 runs
Injury-kit Kent finished on 102 for 2 in reply to Nottinghamshire's 350 all out on a rain-hit second day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash at Trent Bridge. No play was possible after tea.
With 10 first-team players either injured or unavailable, Jack Leaning's Kent side included two batters signed on emergency loan and another brought out of red-ball 'retirement' with the county's resources so stretched.
After Ben Slater's opening-day century, wicketkeeper Tom Moores made 94 as Nottinghamshire secured three batting points, 20-year-old Jas Singhfinishing with 4 for 87 as Kent collected three for bowling. Both teams - Kent in particular - will feel happier with a win here ahead of the break for the Metro Bank One-Day Cup as they seek to preserve their Division One status.
Brett Hutton, the Championship's leading wicket-taker, bagged his 46th scalp of the season when he dismissed former Nottinghamshire team-mate Ben Compton, which makes this the most successful campaign of his career, beating the 45 wickets he collected for Northamptonshire in Division Two in 2018.
On the basis of day one, when Kent's bowlers could have made more of a helpful pitch, the 75 runs Nottinghamshire were able to add to their overnight score in similarly tricky conditions looked to have put them in a good position.
The only negative amid their morning's work was that Moores, unbeaten on 72 overnight and eyeing up a first hundred in a first-class match since August 2020, fell six runs short, edging a catch to gully as a decent ball from Matt Quinn squared him up a touch. His 49-run partnership with Lyndon James had just secured a second batting point.
After Kent had taken the second new ball at the start of play, James, who made 36, was caught at second slip after Calvin Harrison had been taken at first and Hutton caught behind as conditions continued to aid the seamers.
It had been a decent morning for the makeshift Kent attack, certainly, compared with the first day. Singh, a right-armer who has come though the Kent academy, finished with four wickets in an innings for the second time in only his sixth first-class match.
Getting close to Nottinghamshire's score looked a fairly formidable task for a Kent batting line-up that is even more patched up than their bowling attack. Toby Albert and Ben Geddes, making their debuts on loan from Hampshire and Surrey respectively, arrived with only six first-class appearances between them; Alex Blake, on a white-ball only contract since 2020, is appearing in a first-class match for the first time since July 2019.
At tea, nonetheless, they were making a pretty decent fist of their reply, having negotiated a 36-over session with only two losses. Compton was leg-before to a swinging delivery from Hutton, but Albert, a 21-year-old right-hander who batted at No. 3 in Hampshire's Vitality Blast side, batted nicely for his 37 in only his second first-class match before falling to a good catch by Harrison at second slip.
Albert's loose drive provided a comeback wicket for Luke Fletcher, playing for the first time in the Championship since early May after undergoing surgery for an ankle spur, although the local favourite began limping noticeably soon afterwards and had to leave the field two balls into his 10th over, which will be of concern to Nottinghamshire skipper Steven Mullaney.
Geddes also impressed. Another 21-year-old, he posted his maiden first-class century against Kent last summer before being made captain of a young Surrey side in the One-Day Cup. He was unbeaten on 36 out of 102 for 2 at tea before the weather closed in.
