Nottinghamshire 202 Kent 33-4: Sidebottom on cue to stun Kent

Ryan Sidebottom's timing and location could not have been more ideal. The England selectors met here yesterday for early deliberations on the composition of the team for the first Test against New Zealand at Lord's next week.

And late in the afternoon Sidebottom presented a compelling case for inclusion by taking three wickets in 19 balls with a deadly spell of left-arm swing that rocked Kent.

Sidebottom exploited conditions from the outset, bowling Joe Denly first ball. In his third over he had Matthew Walker on the back foot caught behind with a beauty.

Three balls later Darren Stevens fell lbw shouldering arms, although the batsman appeared to indicate that the ball had hit him too high. He still went.

With Charlie Shreck trapping Martin van Jaarsveld lbw with an inswinger in the Cornishman's first over it left Kent in a sorry state – and there Stuart Broad is still to enter the home team's attack.

The visitors limped through their 11 overs to the close still 169 runs behind on the first innings with just half a dozen wickets standing, yet they had looked to have taken charge of affairs by bowling out the Championship leaders cheaply.

Apparently the state-of-the-art electronic scoreboard that has just been installed here can be seen for miles, which might not please Nottinghamshire. There was scarcely a performance that warranted even a ripple of applause inside the ground.

Nottinghamshire had struggled to get on top of the naggingly accurate Kent attack, in particular Darren Stevens who went at a miserly 1.75 runs per over to finish with 3 for 42 off his 24 overs.