Kent (102-2) reply against Nottinghamshire (350 all out) in County Championship Division 1

Injury-hit Kent made a good start in reply to Nottinghamshire’s 350 all out on a rain-hit second day of their LV= Insurance County Championship Division 1 clash at Trent Bridge on Wednesday.

With 10 first-team players injured or unavailable, Jack Leaning’s Kent side included two batsmen signed on emergency loans and another brought out of red-ball “retirement” as they got to 102-2.

After Ben Slater’s opening-day century, wicketkeeper Tom Moores made 94 as the hosts secured three batting points, 20-year-old Jas Singh finishing with 4-87 as Kent collected three bowling points.

Brett Hutton (1-29), the Championship’s leading wicket-taker, bagged his 46th scalp this season when he dismissed former Nottinghamshire team-mate Ben Compton for 14, which makes this the most successful campaign of his career. He has already beaten the 45 wickets he collected for Northamptonshire in Division 2 five years ago.

On the basis of day one, when the away 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 Moores - 72 overnight and eyeing up a first hundred in a first-class match since August 2020 - who fell six runs short, edging a catch to gully as a decent ball from Matt Quinn (2-52) squared him up. His 49-run stand with Lyndon James had just secured a second batting point.

After Kent had taken the second new ball at the start of day two’s 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