Kent Spitfires suffered a seven-wicket defeat at Nottinghamshire Outlaws in a rain-hit Yorkshire Bank 40 day-night match at Trent Bridge on Wednesday night.

After the visitors had been put in to bat and registered 220-6 from their 40 overs, the rain arrived causing delays of around two hours and seeing the Duckworth-Lewis method used to give the hosts a revised target of 140 from 19 overs.

Notts reached their target with 15 balls to spare thanks to an unbeaten 50 from England prospect James Taylor.

Rob Key and Brendan Nash again led the way for Kent, scoring 62 and 42 respectively and sharing a second-wicket partnership of 97 before both fell to the impressive Steven Mullaney, who finished with a career-best 4-29.

Mullaney also accounted for the wickets of Sam Northeast and Darren Stevens, who was expertly stumped by Chris Read, for 10 apiece as Kent lost four wickets for the addition of just 34 runs in a 10-over stretch.

Geraint Jones (39) and Ben Harmison (33 not out) steered Kent past 200 with 88 runs added in a lively final 10 overs.

Samit Patel held on to two good catches to send Key and Jones back to the pavilion and also produced a fine throw which saw Sam Billings ran-out in the second over for one.

Kent made a good start to the reply once the rain disappeared and Michael Lumb went in just the second over, run-out by Sam Billings for 11.

Alex Hales (21) and Patel (17) were caught on the boundary by Stevens and Coles respectively as the Outlaws chased their reduced target but Taylor and Riki Wessels (37 not out) produced an unbroken stand of 67 from just 38 balls.

The pair added 18 from the 16th over, bowled by Charlie Shreck in his first one-day match for three years, while Taylor saw the hosts over the line with three consecutive boundaries off Matt Coles (0-33 off 15 balls) as they took over at the top of Group A while Kent stay third.