James Sales and Arush Buchake both hit half centuries but the 2XI still found themselves short of Durham 2XI’s first innings score after rain halted play late on on day 2.
Sales hit nine boundaries on his way to 62 while Buchake struck eleven 4s during his 66.
Having started the second day 35/0, 335 runs behind Durham’s first innings of 368/7 declared, the 2XI were on the backfoot immediately, losing Aum Raykar with the fourth ball of the day.
Krish Patel came to the crease at 3 and joined Arush Buchake. The pair went strongly, putting on a stand of 74 for the second wicket before Patel was caught cheaply after a fluent looking 40.
Buchake continued to score and brought up his 50, striking nine boundaries in 87 balls. The opener however fell a couple of overs before the lunch break, finding French in the deep as he attempted to clip one away off his hips.
Heading into lunch, the 2XI looked comfortable at 155/3, James Sales was unbeaten on 25, whereas Aadi Sharma was there on three.
In the seventh over after the restart, Sharma was adjudged LBW by the umpire off the bowling of Glover and the wicket of Oldershaw in the following over put the 2XI in a more challenging position.
James Sales played a resilient anchor role for the batting side and he brought up his 50 in the 47th over, striking at just over 100 and hitting 8 boundaries.
In the 63rd over, Sales was deemed to be outside of his crease and was stumped by Hayden Mustard on 62, leading to the players going off for bad light shortly after and straight into tea 241/6.
Rain caused a further delay up in Darlington and the players didn’t return after tea, ending the day prematurely.