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 Kent attack, compared with the first day.

Singh, a right-armer who has come through their Academy, finished with four wickets in an innings for the second time in only the 20-year-old’s 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 - appearing in a first-class match for the first time since July 2019.

At tea, nonetheless, the visitors 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 T20 Blast side, played 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 (1-7), who played for the first time in the Championship since early May after undergoing surgery for an ankle injury, although he began limping noticeably soon afterwards and had to leave the field two balls into his 10th over.

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 at tea before the weather closed in. Leaning was 10 not out.

“We are pretty happy with where we are in the game,” said Albert.

“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’s 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’s 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.”