A second first-class century of the summer for Rob Keogh powered Northamptonshire into a strong position on Day 2 against Leicestershire.
Northamptonshire started the day looking to claim the final two Foxes wickets and had their wish inside 10 overs. A mix-up handed the visitors the first of the day, Keogh swooping on a ball at midwicket with Sanderson taking the bails off at the non-strikers end to find Davis short. Evans lasted just three balls in his debut innings, Brett Hutton trapping him in front to end the Leicestershire innings on 308.
It was a bright start to the Northamptonshire reply, Curran and Newton both regularly finding the boundary in the opening overs. Newton was the first to go when he shouldered arms with the score at 42 in the eighth over. Wakely joined Curran in the middle and the pair pushed through until lunch, taking the score to 63 at the break.
The partnership wouldn’t continue long after lunch, Curran falling in the first over when he feathered an edge to the keeper. Rob Keogh came to the middle and looked in good touch early, together with Wakely the pair upped the scoring rate in a partnership that moved past 50. With the score at 118 Wakely was unlucky to depart, having clipped a ball of his legs but too fine with keeper Swindells diving across to take a smart catch.
Richard Levi, back in the Northamptonshire eleven for just his second first-class game of the year and was into his work quickly. Both he and Keogh looked in control of proceedings before Wright found some assistance from the pitch to nip back and burst through Levi’s defence for 19.
Keogh and Rossington put Leicestershire to the sword and Northamptonshire in control after tea. The scoring rate rose sharply and spent much of the first half of the evening session towards 5 an over as the boundary was regularly found. Rob Keogh cut behind point to go to his second first-class century of the summer, his second at Grace Road after reaching three figures in the Royal London One Day Cup.
Rossington went past 50 as Northamptonshire closed in on Leicestershire’s first innings total, the partnership with Keogh going into three figures. It ended two shy of another milestone though, with the third batting bonus point in the bank Rossington was caught deep on the legside for 63.
Northamptonshire took the lead late in the day before Leicestershire rallied with two late wickets. Ackermann found some turn in the wicket to beat Procter’s outside edge and clip off stump. The new ball was taken with four overs left in the day and to immediate effect as some extra bounce caught Keogh off guard and ended his innings on 132. New signings Gareth Berg and Doug Bracewell took things through to the close with a lead of 17.
Leicestershire 308 (Procter 3/54, Hutton 3/62)
Northamptonshire 325/7 (Keogh 132, Rossington 63)