Luke Procter and 17 year-old Academy player Rishabh Upadhyay put on a club record 6th wicket partnership of 213 on an excellent day of cricket for Northamptonshire’s 2XI.
After a rain affected first two days, Northamptonshire found themselves starting the third day on 147/5 in their first innings with Luke Procter on 39 and Rishabh Upadhyay on 6.
Having rebuilt from 80/4, Upadhyay and Procter pushed on with Procter bringing up his 50 after 140 deliveries. While Procter played a more patient role in the side, Academy player Upadhyay began to score at a quicker rate at the other end, bringing up his 50 in 96 balls, with 5 fours and 2 sixes, Northamptonshire moving to 242/5 at lunch.
The pair showed no signs of slowing down after the break as both made use of the warm weather and great batting conditions, with Procter hitting some majestic cover drives and looking particularly strong in front of the wicket.
Procter brought up the 100 partnership in the 79th over with a delicate shot into mid-wicket and ten overs later brought up his century in 229 balls with his twelfth boundary.
Upadhyay and Procter carried on their remarkable partnership with Upadhyay brought up his century in the 110th over, hitting Jack Shutt back over his head for his 10th four of his innings. The Academy batsman hit 10 fours and 4 sixes on his way to his 195 ball century to bring the 2XI to 344/5.
History was made just a couple of overs after tea as the pair broke Graeme White and Ben Howgego’s 6th wicket partnership record of 212, ticking up to 213 before Procter was caught off a glove down the legside for 141 off the bowling of Dominic Leech.
With the partnership broken at 213, the 2XI started to play with a lot of freedom towards the end of the day. Upadhyay fell for a brilliant 123 off the bowling of Shutt but George Weldon helped bring the 2XI over 400 as he hit a prolific 33* from 14. Weldon was joined by Jack White who employed the reverse sweep to good effect for 18* before captain Luke Procter declared on 424/8 with Northamptonshire getting a chance to bowl late in the day at the Yorkshire 2XI top order.
Yorkshire made a patient start but Gareth Berg made a breakthrough in the 12th over, forcing an outside edge from Finlay Bean. Hassan Azad took a good, low catch to remove the opener for 16.
Northamptonshire couldn’t make another breakthrough as Yorkshire 2XI ended the day on 36/1 as the teams head into the last day in Leeds.