Ricardo Vasconcelos and Saif Zaib shared a 50 run partnership before rain and hail curtailed the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship match against Nottinghamshire.
Vasconcelos batted right through the morning session at Wantage Road to add exactly 50 for the third wicket with Zaib, who posted an unbeaten 22.
That stand enabled Northamptonshire to reach lunch at 86 for two, with Luke Fletcher and Dan Paterson taking a wicket apiece, but further progress proved impossible after a heavy downpour during the interval left the playing surface saturated.
Umpires Neil Pratt and Richard Illingworth abandoned play for the day shortly after 3pm.
Nottinghamshire skipper Steven Mullaney opted to insert the home side after winning the toss.
Emilio Gay, back at the top of the order after a knee injury had ruled him out of Northamptonshire’s first four matches this season, displayed no signs of rust as he elegantly dispatched Fletcher to the fence three times.
However, Fletcher probed away to get his man, moving one away to find the edge into Joe Clarke’s gloves and that dismissal, along with a consistent spell from first change Paterson, stifled the scoring rate.
Paterson picked up the visitors’ second wicket with a beautiful delivery that seared back a long way to crash into Sam Whiteman’s off stump.
It took Vasconcelos 89 balls to register his first boundary, belting a rare stray delivery from Paterson through the covers with his usual flair, but the second and third quickly followed in Fletcher’s next over as he and Zaib built a solid partnership.