Yorkshire v Northamptonshire: LV= County Championship

YORKSHIRE will hope for some help from the weather gods on Wednesday as they pursue a deserved LV= County Championship victory over Northamptonshire at Headingley.

The White Rose county were frustrated during Tuesday's third day as they only claimed four wickets in the 49 overs possible due to rain and bad light.

Given a full day’s play, it would be a surprise if they did not pick up 23 points for a first win of the season seen as Northants are 149-4 in their second innings and still 216 runs behind having been asked to follow-on.

The visitors returned a much improved batting performance on Tuesday having been bowled out for just 94 on Monday afternoon in reply to Yorkshire’s first-innings 459-9 declared, which included 174 for Gary Ballance.

Opener James Middlebrook, formerly of Yorkshire, led the way with 63, and he shared 89 for the second wicket with Kyle Coetzer (39).

Ryan Sidebottom picked up two wickets after a delay of nearly three overs from 11.25am.

He had Stephen Peters caught behind by Andrew Hodd in the ninth over and Coetzer the same way in the 34th - the last before tea.

There was a third rain delay, this time of 75 minutes, before play resumed at 6pm with 14 overs left.

And it was actually Yorkshire’s best period of the day as Jack Brooks struck twice to take his tally in the match to seven wickets.

After Gary Ballance gave Yorkshire and England a scare by leaving the field with a cut finger on his right hand - he is fine to field today - Brooks removed Matt Spriegel lbw and had Middlebrook caught behind, leaving the score at 145-4.

This was Middlebrook’s highest score against his first county. Rob Newton and night-watchman Maurice Chambers are the not out batsmen.

At Headingley Carnegie.
Overnight: Yorkshire 459-9 dec (G S Ballance
174, A Z Lees 90; A J Hall4-103).
Northamptonshire 94 (J A Brooks 5-36, R J
Sidebottom 4-16).

Northamptonshire Second Innings Close
S D Peters c Hodd b Sidebottom .........11
J D Middlebrook c Hodd b Brooks .......63
K J Coetzer c Hodd b Sidebottom ........39
M N Spriegel lbw b Brooks .................. 7
R I Newton not out .............................11
M A Chambers not out ....................... 0
Extras (b12 lb2 nb4 pens 0) ........18
Total 4 wkts (49 overs).................149
Fall: 1-15 2-24 3-113 4-132
To Bat: A J Hall, D J Willey, S P Crook, D Murphy,
Mohammad Azharullah.
Sidebottom 14-3-31-2. Brooks 13-2-48-2.
Williamson 2-1-4-0. A U Rashid 3-1-4-0.
Patterson 10-3-15-0. Plunkett 7-1-33-0.
Emirates Old Trafford: Lancashire 247 (P J
Horton 83, C R Woakes 5-63) & 46-0 v
Warwickshire 324 (W T S Porterfield 77, I R Bell
75, V Chopra 52, T C Smith 4-67)

Division Two
Derby: Hampshire 328 (W R Smith 70, J S
Gatting 67) & 20-0 v Derbyshire 399 (S C Moore
128, S Chanderpaul 82, T D Groenewald 56 no,
K J Abbott 4-84)
The SWALEC Stadium: Glamorgan 145 (G G
Wagg 54 no) & 80-3 v Gloucestershire 231 (C D
J Dent 52, D A Cosker 5-46)
Canterbury: Leicestershire 333 (M A G Boyce
68, A J Ireland 52) & 39-2 v Kent 269-7 dec (D
J Bell-Drummond 58)
The Kia Oval: Essex 306 (M P Dunn 5-60) v
Surrey 217-6 (G C Smith 65)

FIXTURES (11.00)
LV County Championship
Division One (day 4 of 4)
Emirates Durham ICG: Durham v Somerset
Emirates Old Trafford: Lancashire v Warwickshire
Headingley Carnegie: Yorkshire v Northamptonshire

Division Two (day 4 of 4)
Derby: Derbyshire v Hampshire
The SWALEC Stadium: Glamorgan v Gloucestershire
Canterbury: Kent v Leicestershire
The Kia Oval: Surrey v Essex