Ben Slater's first century of the 2023 LV= Insurance County Championship helped Nottinghamshire get off to a positive start on day one of their skirmish with Kent.
Tom Moores also excelled at Trent Bridge, scoring his second consecutive half-century to leave Notts on 275/5 at the close of play.
The sun had burst its way through the clouds at Trent Bridge, just in time for Nottinghamshire and Kent to commence day one of their County Championship clash.
The visitors won the toss in gloomy conditions and elected to bowl, but the grey clouds cleared as Haseeb Hameed and Ben Slater stepped out to bat for Notts.
After a steady start in the first ten overs, the openers upped the pace, racing to a first-wicket partnership of 65.
That was broken by Joey Evison during his first over of the match, who rapped the pads of Hameed for 18.
Slater continued to press on with flair, but never stepped over the edge, taking ten boundaries on his way to a half-century. The left-handed batsman flew past his fifty off 70 balls, surpassing 7000 First Class runs in the process.
This contribution helped Notts finish the morning session on a commanding 116/1.
Will Young slapped five off the first two balls of the afternoon session but was caught behind by Finch off Arshdeep Singh’s delivery for 21, while Joe Clarke hammered the first maximum of the match to move Nottinghamshire past 150, Notts adding nine more before Clarke was trapped lbw by Quinn.
Slater tucked away his 15th boundary of the innings, and then connected off Jas Singh for three more runs to take the opener to a 150-ball century.
Shortly after, he fell to Harry Finch who pouched an outside edge off Singh’s delivery, but that didn’t make Slater’s stint with the bat any less marvellous.
Fresh off a second innings score of 81 against Hampshire, Tom Moores found the boundary twice off his first three balls, going into a slightly premature Tea on 17 due to bad weather.
A persistent shower kept the game from restarting but subsided in time for play to resume just after 5pm.
Moores formed a strong partnership with Steven Mullaney during the evening session with the former doing the lion's share of the run-scoring, notching his half-century off of 77 balls and finding a second boundary two deliveries later.
The partnership score of 83 was broken by Singh, as the umpire agreed with Kent's shouts for lbw on Mullaney.
Lyndon James joined Moores to see out the final seven overs of the day and continued to attack, gaining more runs before the close of play, positioning Nottinghamshire on 275/5 ahead of day two.
The wicket-keeper will continue on an unbeaten 72 tomorrow, with James restarting on 8 not out.