Northamptonshire 2XI made a strong recovery on Day 1, reducing Leicestershire to 85/5 after being bowled out for 152 at The County Ground.

A wet start to the day meant that proceedings were halted, with play eventually getting underway at 1:30pm after an early lunch was taken at 12pm.

Once play did begin, Northamptonshire lost the toss, bringing Harry Gouldstone and Rishabh Upadhyay to the middle on an overcast afternoon at The County Ground.

Upadhyay was removed in the third over of the day, as Will Davis claimed his first wicket.

Gouldstone made a quick start however, hitting five 4s in the early overs, moving to 28 runs off 28 deliveries.

Gouldstone then found himself on the end of a brilliant delivery from Davis, as the seamer found a way past the bat to bowl the 2XI captain for 28.

The wickets continued to fall early on for the 2XI, as in the 12th over, Roman Walker picked up two wickets in his first over of the day, removing Aadi Sharma and Jack Attenborough in the space of three deliveries.

Stumbling to 41-4, Rohan Mehmi and Arush Buchake aimed to rebuild the innings, but the pair managed a 38 run partnership before Mehmi was trapped LBW by Klein for 17.

Aum Raykar was in at seven and joined Buchake at the crease with Northamptonshire 79-5 after 23 overs.

Raykar fell five overs later, edging one through to the keeper from the bowling of Sam Wood and Northamptonshire 2XI found themselves six wickets down. Ethan Rice fell shortly after the batting side brought up their 100 as Wood got his second wicket of the game and Leicestershire’s seventh.

Buchake managed to provide a bit of stability as he reached 41* by tea, but Northamptonshire found themselves 113/7 heading into the evening session.

Buchake continued his strong showing after tea and celebrated his 17th birthday in style by bringing up his first 2XI half century off 70 deliveries, hitting nine boundaries on the way.

Freddie Heldreich and Buchake reached their fifty partnership too, but quickly after Heldreich played one onto his stumps and had to depart for a valuable 27, including three 4s and one 6.

Buchake was removed shortly after for 53 and Northamptonshire 2XI were all out 152.

Leicestershire were out to bat with not much play left in the day and in the second over, Raphael Weatherall made the breakthrough, bowling Sam Evans for a duck.

Weatherall bowled the other opener in the 10th over and Ethan Rice removed Harry Swindells to leave Leicestershire 2XI 42-3.

On a pitch with plenty of movement, the 2XI continued their strong start by taking another two wickets before the close of play as Rice picked up his second and Rishabh Upadhyay got his first of the game to leave Leicestershire 85/5 the game wide open at the end of Day 1.