Chris Read completed his second LV= County Championship hundred of the season before Darren Pattinson dismissed opening batsman Joe Denly with the first ball of Kent’s reply.

But Darren Stevens disrupted Nottinghamshire’s progress with an unbeaten 98-run partnership with James Tredwell to steer the home side to 274-5 at close of play.

Kent had been in danger of collapsing having slipped to 176-5 with Andre Adams claiming 3-66 from 18 overs. Denly edged Pattinson to David Hussey who took three catches in the slips.

Nottinghamshire have a 188-run lead having kicked on from their overnight score of 393-8. Graeme White scored 29 runs with Darren Pattinson scoring five but Read dominated the strike to push Notts beyond 450.

“Ready didn’t feel that 350 was going to represent a decent return and he took it upon himself to move us forward alongside Graeme who I know has good batting ability,” said Nottinghamshire Director of Cricket Mick Newell.

“We’re in a decent position and the new ball becomes available in five overs time and that will signal the start of a very important phase of the game.

“The last hour belonged to Kent because we were guilty of a bit of slack bowling and some poor fielding but we performed very well up until that point and I’m pleased with our position.”

Rob Key was caught by Hussey off Samit Patel and Paul Franks was economical but went unrewarded. Notts will be keen to end the resistance of Stevens and Tredwell early on day three.