Kent Spitfires and Notts Outlaws had to share a point each at Trent Bridge as rain forced a draw in the Royal London Cup.

With Nottinghamshire winning the toss and electing to bat rain began to fall shortly before the scheduled start time. This meant a delayed start of 15:15. The game was subsequently reduced from 50 over’s to 43 over’s a side.

Opening the bowling Doug Bollinger narrowly missed out on an early breakthrough for the visitors – His opening two balls at Yorker length were well dealt with by the batsmen and his fourth ball of a decent opening over saw Blake have what appeared a half chance at mid-wicket but the ball looked to bounce just shy of the stooping fielder.

Bollinger’s opening bowler partner Mitch Claydon struck in the fourth over of the innings – Kelsall chased a wideish delivery, edging to wicketkeeper Sam Billings for 5, the score 14/1.

At the end of the nine over power-play the hosts had posted 41/1.

In the 14^th over opener Lumb (34) and Mullaney (22) put on their 50 partnership.

Soon after in the 16^th over Kent talisman Darren Stevens struck, seeing Tredwell catch Lumb at mid-wicket for 37, the score 70/2.

At 1619 the rain began to fall heavily and the players went off, returning to recommence at 1700 with the game reduced to 38 over’s a side.

Soon after the restart Northeast put down a hard chance high above his head off Darren Stevens.

Alex Blake then showed great awareness and athleticism when fielding deep on the boundary. Samit Patel struck a shot high towards the deep mid-wicket boundary. Blake took the catch but in realising his momentum was taking him over the boundary rope, he threw the ball back into play and the ball was fielded for 2 – Saving 4 runs.

In the 24^th over Callum Haggett’s fourth ball was hit for a single by Mullaney which saw him reach his half century off 50 balls – Soon after Mullaney and Patel put on their own 50 partnership; 53 off 59 balls.

In the 28^th over Mitch Claydon struck, seeing Mullaney holing out to long on straight to Stevens for 62, the score 137/3.

In the 31^st over captain Sam Northeast made an inspirational bowling change bringing on Ben Harmison, striking with his first ball who holed out to Blake on the deep mid-wicket boundary for 33 with the score now 146/4 – Soon after the incoming batsman Wessels struck the first 6 of the innings over long off.

In the 33^rd over the hosts took the final two-over power-play – Bollinger came on to bowl the first and after seeing the first three balls go for 4 and the next for 6 the penultimate ball of his over saw Wessel’s off stump uprooted, bowled for 29 with the score now on 180/5

Claydon bowled tightly for the second of the power-play overs with Nottinghamshire scoring 27/1 in the two-over spell.

In the penultimate over Franklin’s cameo was ended edging Bollinger to Billings for a quickfire 30 off 20 deliveries with the score on 219/6.

The final over bowled by Claydon was tight and effective and saw Wood caught by Stevens at long on. Chris Read struck the final ball for four which resulted in the final over going for just 8 and the hosts innings closing on 228/7

Due to the game originally being a 43 over game, reduced to 38, Kent’s target was revised to 232 to win.

So out came Daniel Bell-Drummond and Northeast, however in the opening over Kent lost their first wicket – Bell-Drummond edging Ball wide outside his off stump to wicketkeeper Read with the score on 2/1.

In the 2^nd over Northeast scored Kent’s first boundary of the innings.

Throughout the remaining overs of Kent’s powerplay Northeast and Harmison looked in imperious form, striking shots to all parts of the field adding boundary after boundary to the Kent total. At the end of the sixth over and Kent’s power-play the visitors were on 34/1.

The next over saw Harmison hit Ball for six over long on and into the Radcliffe Rd End.

Soon after and in the eighth over Northeasts innings came to a sad end as he looked to pull a shot that appeared to come onto him quicker than he anticipated but could only hit it straight up in the air for Shahzad to take a caught and bowled wicket – Northeast out for 21 and Kent’s score 44/2.

In came Fabian Cowdrey whose first ball almost rolled back onto his stumps before he intervened. The youngster then directed a short ball through the unmanned 4^th slip area for four.

Immediately afterwards the players sharply left the field of play due to rain with the score on 48/2 and with the covers coming on TrentBridge was engulfed in torrential rain including moments of thunder and lightning.

At 2026, an hour after the players left the field of play, the groundstaff shook hands with the umpires on the outfield and the announcement soon after confirmed the game was abandoned due to the weather – As a result of Kent failing to bat the minimum stipulation of 10 over’s the game was declared a no result with each side earning one point each.

The point sees Kent go top of Group B

Notts Outlaws won the toss and elected to bat.

Nottinghamshire: Lumb, Kelsall, Patel, Wessels, Franklin, Read #, Mullaney, Wood, Shahzad, Ball, Fletcher.

Kent: Bell-Drummond, Northeast ©, Harmison, Stevens, Cowdrey, Blake, Billings #, Haggett, Tredwell, Claydon, Bollinger.

Result: Notts 228 for 7 (38 overs – Mullaney 62; Claydon 3-37), Kent 48 for 2 (8 overs) – No Result – One point each.

Att; 3,132