Aadi Sharma posted a resilient half century but Northamptonshire 2XI fell short in their first innings again the South Asian Cricket Academy.

Having started the day on 27/3, Hassan Azad and Night Watchman Alex Russell resumed on 20 and 3 respectively.

The pair put on a strong 58 run partnership before Russell edged one to slip and was dismissed for a well-made 40 off 46 deliveries. Hughes-Rowlands and Charles Oldershaw fell quickly after Russell and the 2XI found themselves 101-6.

Hassan Azad fell for 41 in the over after Oldershaw’s dismissal, with Aadi Sharma and Simon Kerrigan seeing the 2XI through to Lunch on 130/7.

Sharma and Kerrigan built on their partnership as the pair frustrated the bowling attack by putting on an 83 run partnership before Kerrigan fell for 34. Sharma continued his scoring and brought up his half century in the 65th over from 84 balls and with nine 4s.

Sharma added 17 runs to his half century before being bowled by Adam Patel in the 69th over, leaving the 2XI 223/9.

Ethan Rice managed to score 19 but he was the last to fall and the 2XI were all out for 235 and trailing SACA’s first innings score by 68 runs.

Raphael Weatherall managed to make an early breakthrough as SACA looked to build on their first innings score, with the Academy quick forcing a mis-hit from Savin Perera as he look to hit one to the leg side boundary. William Prideaux took a good catch in the deep and the batting side were 10/1 in the fifth over.

Bad light meant the players went off in the 16th over but returned to the field half an hour later and the bowling side made use of the trickier conditions as Justin Broad forced an outside edge from Rohan Mehmi in the third over after the restart.

Arav Shetty and Zen Malik saw through the remaining eight overs in the day and SACA finished the second day 66/2, with a lead of 134 runs.