Ryan Sidebottom struck twice in two balls to see off Martin van Jaarsveld and Geraint Jones but Kent recovered to win by three wickets at Trent Bridge.
Sidebottom took van Jaarsveld’s off-stump before seeing Jones caught by Ealham but Ryan McLaren shared a partnership of 71 with Yasir Arafat to take Kent past the post.
Kent reached 173-7 after Justin Kemp was caught by Matt Wood off Charlie Shreck and it was perhaps fitting that Ryan McLaren hit Samit Patel for four to end the contest having curtailed Notts’ second innings with 6-75 on Friday.
“We worked hard and bowled well this morning but there was a lot of good batting from Kent,” said Mick Newell.
“We faded badly in the first innings after reaching 150-3 and our total was perhaps a hundred runs short of where I wanted us to be.
“It’s probably the last we’ll see of Stuart and Ryan for a while but we knew that was coming and it gives opportunities for Luke Fletcher to come in to the one day side and Paul Franks to play four-day games.”
Ryan Sidebottom and Stuart Broad will have a keen ear on Geoff Miller when the head of the national selectors announces the Test squad from Trent Bridge live on Sky Sports News at 9.30am on Sunday.
The Notts duo are widely expected to be included but Andrew Flintoff has been declared unavailable for the first two npower Tests having suffered a side strain.
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