Nottinghamshire 381 for five

SEASON’S-BEST hundreds from Stephen Fleming and David Hussey ensured that Kent were made to pay dearly for four dropped catches on the opening day of their championship match with Nottinghamshire.

Batting first on a decent Trent Bridge pitch, the basement hosts reached 381 for five at stumps after another disappointing day in the field for injury-hit Kent.

Shorn of Amjad Khan and Martin Saggers, Kent could ill afford to spill any chances and the fact that four went down merely intensified their loss.

Kent’s usually reliable second slip Martin van Jaarsveld dropped two chanced off the luckless Simon Cook, as left-hander Will Smith offered two chances to second slip in moving to a scratchy three from 11 balls.

He eventually went padding up to a Tyron Henderson leg-cutter in only the fifth over of a bright morning as the hosts elected to take first use of a sporting Trent Bridge pitch that eased as the day progressed.

Five overs later Cook deservedly opened his account by running one back off the seam to right-handed David Alleyne, who missed the ball with a crooked defensive push to go leg before for eight.

Darren Bicknell had looked more comfortable than most in the opening hour but, with 16 to his name, he became Dwayne Bravo’s third victim in five starts when he prodded at a late out-swinger and feathered an edge through to Geraint Jones to make it 61 for three.

After a short rest, Cook returned at the Ratcliffe Road End, only to see a third catch go down.

This time it was Australian Hussey who received the third, most difficult let-off, driving hard with his score on eight he got a thick edge only for Walker to spill a one-handed effort high to his right. The reality is, Walker had stopped a boundary.

The chances dried up thereafter as home skipper Stephen Fleming and David Hussey posted 164 for the fourth wicket in 39 overs.

Having made a decent start Robbie Joseph suffered no ball problems, overstepping seven times in all, his confidence almost visibly drained and he came in for some severe punishment.

Kiwi Fleming moved to his first hundred of the season with a pull for six against Bravo from the 143rd ball of his innings.

But no sooner had he celebrated his 30th first-class ton than he was on his way back to the pavilion having edged Bravo’s next ball to slip where this time van Jaarsveld made no mistake.

It left Hussey, Nottinghamshire’s leading run-scorer of a poor summer, to go on and improve on his season’s best.

He reached his fourth hundred from 148-balls and featured in stands worth 73 in 19 overs with Samit Patel (27) and an unbroken 83 with Mark Ealham through to stumps.

Patel had been the fourth batsman of the day to be given a life when, with his score on seven, Min Patel grassed a simple catch at slip off the luckless Henderson. It was the 10th chance the South African has seen downed in his short stay with the club.

Come the close Hussey had amassed 156 and Nottinghamshire were only 19 short of posting maximum batting bonus points for the first time since their opening game of the season.

It ended a dismal day for Kent that started with disappointing news that Amjad Khan looked set to miss the rest of the season with a posterior cruciate ligament tear in his left knee.

How he would have enjoyed bowling on this Trent Bridge pitch, and how Kent missed his additional pace.

SCORECARD

Nottinghamshire first innings

D J Bicknell c Jones b Bravo 19
W R Smith lbw b Henderson 3
D Alleyne lbw b Cook 8
S P Fleming c van Jaarsveld b Bravo 101
D J Hussey not out 156
S R Patel c&b Stevens 27
M A Ealham not out 33

Extras 34

Total 381 for five after 104 overs

Fall of wicket: 1-11, 2-22, 3-61, 4-225, 5-298

Bowling: Henderson 23-7-59-1, Cook 21-2-91-1, Joseph 12-0-62-0, Bravo 17-4-71-2, Stevens 13-4-25-1, Patel 17-1-64-0, Walker 1-1-0-0.