Surrey’s last-wicket pair post career-best scores before Gay and Keogh keep hosts in the hunt
Amar Virdi is among the young English spinners thriving in the Bob Willis Trophy
Northamptonshire 171 and 106 for 2 (Keogh 46*, Gay 44*) need 214 runs vs Surrey 252 and 238 (Jacks 50, Virdi 47, Atkinson 41*, Kerrigan 4-36)
Seamers Ben Sanderson and Tom Taylor then accounted for Jordan Clark and Rikki Clarke cheaply as Surrey lost three wickets for just 23 runs inside 12 overs.
Jacks though moved to 50, mixing stylish boundaries with solid defence, before Kerrigan struck in successive balls. First, he deceived Jacks in the flight and hit the stumps. Then he bowled Reece Topley through the gate before Virdi safely negotiated the hat-trick ball.
Atkinson lived dangerously with a couple of streaky boundaries through the slip cordon as well as taking a blow on the helmet which flew away for four leg byes. After lunch though he began to find the middle of the bat against the new ball and he and Virdi found runs easy to come by, frustrating Northamptonshire’s hopes of keeping the run chase to a minimum.
Surrey’s seamers built early pressure and Northamptonshire’s hopes were dealt two early blows when first Ricardo Vasconcelos nicked a Clarke delivery behind before Jordan Clark trapped Harry Gouldstone lbw to leave Northamptonshire 37 for 2.
Gay looked increasingly assured after playing an early crunching backfoot punch for four through backward point. He was soon overtaken by Keogh who got off the mark with back-to-back boundaries down to third man off Clark and then punched through extra cover for four more as scoring became easier.
Flags around the ground were flown at half-mast to mark the death of former Northamptonshire player and past President Peter Arnold at the age of 94.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo