Injury-kit Kent finished on 102 for two 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 Singh finishing with four 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, 72 overnight and eyeing up a first hundred in a first-class match since August 2020, failed 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 more patched-up even than their bowling. 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 the aforementioned 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 two at tea before the weather closed in.

Nottinghamshire’s Tom Moores, who made 94 in his side’s 350 all out, said:

“You are always gutted a little bit when you miss a milestone but looking at where we are in the game, to get 350 on a wicket like that after getting put into the bat was a pretty good effort.

“I think we lost five for 70 this morning, against the new ball, which showed there is still enough in the pitch. There is more than enough there if you bowl in the right areas, although if you don’t, as you know Trent Bridge can be a very fast scoring ground.

“Those partnerships with Mull (Steven Mullaney) and Lyndon were very important in the context of the game. I think we were four down when Mull and I came together and had we lost another couple more at that stage we could have easily been trying just to get to 200. But everyone can bat and we can build partnerships all the way down.

“Kent batted well this afternoon to be fair but getting two wickets before the rain was handy and they are still 250 behind, which is a lot of runs on this pitch. We’ve seen how quickly things can happen here and a five-wicket session is never out of the question.

“We could have easily had a few more today. There were quite a few plays and misses and a couple of edges that just fell short.  Tomorrow morning will be huge. If we bowl anything like we can we can put them under pressure and hopefully bowl them out with a good lead.

“Making the move up to six in the order has been something I’ve really enjoyed and that I’m trying to make the most of that. If you’re batting with the tail, sometimes it is not in your hands how quickly things happen. It is a different skill set, you have to pick and choose when to attack and sometimes farm the strike, so to be able to get out there and get into some sort of rhythm has been good.”

Kent debutant Toby Albert, on loan from Hampshire, said:

“We are pretty happy with where we are in the game. The wicket is obviously offering a little bit but after a good morning with the ball it was nice to get off  to a good start this afternoon. To be two down with a hundred on the board is good because Nottinghamshire have an attack who can rip through sides.

“It is tricky against the new ball here but the wickets here tend to get better and I think this one is getting a bit easier. It was a good toss to win and we think 350 is probably about par.

“It is a decent score but the wicket did start to get a bit flatter and to take those five wickets this morning – they could easily have got 450 if we hadn’t bowled how we wanted to this morning.  We tried to hold our lines and lengths for as long as possible and got the rewards.

“We will look to build on this position tomorrow, hopefully get level with them and then see where we are.

“The move to Kent came about very quickly. I had a call last Saturday. They had obviously had a few injuries and I was asked if I would like to go and do it and I said yes to the opportunity.

“I got a few runs against them at Polo Farm for the Second XI and I’m sure that was one of the reasons they thought of me.”