A late afternoon surge saw Kent’s lower batting order skittled in double-time and 176 further runs scored for the home side as Nottinghamshire wrestled for control of their LV= Insurance County Championship 12th round clash at Trent Bridge.
Star bowler of the 2023 red-ball campaign Brett Hutton added two more wickets to his tally for the season, while Calvin Harrison and Dane Paterson partnered up well in a ruthless end to the afternoon session.
Ben Slater, Haseeb Hameed and Will Young then led a firm batting charge to re-establish a lead.
The visitors began the day on 102/2, chasing a target of precisely 350 as Paterson’s maiden over commenced proceedings in West Bridgford.
Hutton claimed his second and third victims of the contest on either side of lunch, leading Ben Geddes into the palms of Harrison before striking the front pad of Alex Blake to leapfrog Jamie Porter to the summit of the Division One wicket-taking charts.
Harrison too was in on the act in the morning stint - albeit in unconventional fashion - as his delivery was clipped by Jack Leaning onto the foot of Tom Moores, wickedly bouncing to allow a simple catch for skipper Steven Mullaney.
Despite Hutton’s second dismissal of the day occurring in a timely fashion not long after lunch, the wickets appeared to dry up in the afternoon as the Nottinghamshire bowling attack found difficulty in breaking down Kent’s sixth-wicket partnership between Harry Finch and former Notts man Joey Evison.
That was until the closing 20 minutes before tea when, like London buses, a welcome series of quick-fire dismissals came out of the blue to change the mood of the match.
Finch’s costly leave allowed Paterson to clip the top of his stumps for 73 and claim a second bowling bonus point for Notts, before Evison too was clean bowled by the South African only 12 balls later.
Harrison - helicoptered back into the active bowling attack - then began his highly impressive afternoon contribution as his short ball was top-edged by Matt Quinn into the palms of substitute James Hayes, who did well to dive forward for a tricky catch.
Just two overs later, Harrison dismissed Arshdeep Singh and Arafat Bhuiyan in two sensational back-to-back deliveries, leading the former into the hands Lyndon James before finding the leg pad of the latter to reinvigorate a fixture which otherwise looked destined for a stalemate.
With the final removal of bails timed well with tea, Ben Slater and Haseeb Hameed re-opened for Notts after the second interval in hope of carefully rebuilding a lead ahead of the final day.
The pair reached their 50 run-strong partnership just after the 15-over mark, as Slater cruised towards another half-century to add to his first-innings ton.
Their 131 run partnership was finally broken with a brilliant catch behind the stumps by ‘keeper Finch from Hameed, who departed for 45 with six scheduled overs remaining of the day.
In came Will Young, whose back-to-back maximums off Alex Blake featured in a rapid 32 from 19 deliveries, as Notts firmly placed themselves in control and posted 176/1 at the close.
With a 210 run lead, the Green and Golds will look to make the most of what could be a fascinating final day at Trent Bridge.