Pink ball for Notts clash

Kent cricket

Kent’s Specsavers County Championship Division 2 game at Nottinghamshire in June will be a day-night match using a pink Duke ball. It was revealed last week that nine day-night games across the two divisions will all start on June 26 – in part to help England players acclimatise ahead of their day-night Test match against West Indies at Edgbaston in August, with a further view to increasing attendances. Kent’s quest to win promotion back to the top-flight of Championship cricket will begin with the visit of Gloucestershire on Friday, April 7. The game at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, will follow the curtain-raiser First Class match against Leeds and Bradford MCCU, scheduled for Tuesday, March 28. Kent will play 14 Specsavers Championship games against nine Division 2 opponents with blocks of red-ball action at the start and end of the season. The other six games will be played across May, June and early July. Kent’s lone match at Tunbridge Wells is against Sussex from Friday, May 26, while they welcome Northamptonshire to Beckenham on Monday, July 3. The Spitfires’ eight-game 50-over group stage will take place in one block from late April until mid-may with the quarter-finals, semis and final within a three-week span. The opening game is Hampshire’s trip to Canterbury on Thursday, April 27, with a trip to Somerset the following Tuesday and Sussex and Middlesex heading to the Spitfire Ground on Friday, May 5 and Sunday, May 7 respectively. Their final group game is at home to Essex on Wednesday, May 17. The revised Natwest T20 Blast schedule will see all the games taking place in a six-week block from mid-july, with the knockout stages and finals day taking place over the following two weeks. Kent Spitfires will begin their campaign against Essex at Beckenham on Sunday, July 9. Their first match at Canterbury is on Tuesday, July 18, when Gloucestershire visit for a floodlit game but the Spitfires face trips to Middlesex and Sussex before they begin a spell of four home games out of five. Kent host a three-day Tour match against West Indies at the Spitfire Ground, St Lawrence, from Sunday, August 6.