Jack White impressed again with the ball as Northamptonshire’s bowling attack kept Warwickshire tied down at Wantage Road.
White ended Day 3 with 4/62 from from 27 overs, including the important wicket of centurion Dom Sibley on 102.
Although Ben Sanderson found some early movement when Warwickshire resumed at 71 for one, the home side soon turned to spin in the form of Simon Kerrigan.
That move paid off immediately, with the left-armer’s third ball of the morning tempting Chris Benjamin to drive high into the hands of mid-off.
Will Rhodes joined Sibley, who continued to advance at a snail’s pace – the opener’s stay at the crease approaching four hours when he reached his half-century – but the pair gradually began to open up, with Rhodes coming down the track to lift Kerrigan over midwicket for the first six of the match.
However, Warwickshire were pegged back again by Josh Cobb’s pre-lunch spell of three overs for two runs – plus the wicket of Rhodes for 42, smartly caught by the diving Rob Keogh at mid-on.
Northamptonshire persevered with an all-spin attack following the interval, but Sibley dealt with that as he brought up his 17th first-class hundred, from 260 balls.
It was seam – and the new ball – that eventually did the trick when White returned to have Sibley caught behind and then removed Jacob Bethell, with Emilio Gay initially parrying the ball at second slip before recovering to dart forward and scoop it up just above the turf.
With Warwickshire retreating into their collective shell again, Matt Lamb survived a number of close calls to reach 37, squirting White just short of mid-on before edging Tom Taylor through the hands of Ryan Rickelton at first slip.
Taylor got his man on the stroke of tea, though, taken behind off the outside edge to leave the Bears six down and still requiring 44 to avoid the follow-on.
But any concerns were swiftly dispelled by Burgess, who chanced his arm to find a trio of boundaries off Kerrigan and swept him to the fence again to reduce the deficit below 150 as he and McAndrew added 88 for the seventh wicket.
Burgess looked relatively comfortable but fell to White when he attempted a pull shot and top-edged to cover instead.