Northamptonshire enjoyed a productive opening day of their final warm-up fixture of the year against Leicestershire.
The Club’s final match practice before the season proper saw Adam Rossington’s bowlers send down 60 tight overs before handing the reigns to the batsmen who came close to parity by the close.
Northamptonshire’s bowlers shared the workload and wickets on a pitch that favoured the batsmen in Leicestershire’s first batting stint. Berg, Sanderson and Taylor all claiming a scalp while Rob Keogh locked down one end with 15 economical overs.
Head Coach David Ripley said he was very happy with the day’s play.
“It’s a good pitch and so for us to hold the scoring rate with the ball like we did I thought was excellent. I thought we identified conditions well and executed our plans, there was lots of positives with the ball.
“We’ve made a great start with the bat so we’ve had a really, really good day.” Ripley said.
Each day of the fixture is split to allow each side to bat and bowl, with Northamptonshire spending 60 overs in the field on the opening day. In response to Leicestershire’s 139/4, Northamptonshire finished their 30 over batting session in a strong position, trailing the visitors by just 15.
Ben Curran and Ricardo Vasconcelos continued their strong opening partnership, posting a third consecutive half century stand. Vasconcelos batting through the evening session to finish unbeaten on 57, Wakely joining him shortly before the close.