Spinners Chahal and Keogh shine again to put Northants on top against Leicestershire

The pair, who bowled Northants to their first victory of the campaign last week, dismissed the visitors for 203 at Wantage Road, with Chahal taking four for 82 and Keogh three for 20.

Opener Sol Budinger’s 56 was the only score of note for Leicestershire, who opted to bat after winning the toss but struggled to get to grips with the home spinners.

Paceman Scott Currie picked up two wickets as Northants reached stumps at 134 for three in reply, with James Sales undefeated on 34.

Rishi Patel, who blazed a majestic hundred during Leicestershire’s Vitality Blast visit to Northampton earlier in the summer, registered a duck this time as he fell to Saif Zaib’s low catch at point.

Budinger, back in the Foxes’ four-day line-up for the first time since late June, cracked Ben Sanderson for successive off-side boundaries, while Ian Holland looked more skittish at the crease.

Holland batted almost an hour for 12 before he fell victim to Chahal’s third ball, bowled attempting an ambitious reverse paddle – and the Indian leg-spinner was unlucky not to gain further reward prior to lunch.

Chahal had strong lbw appeals against both Lewis Hill and Budinger turned down, but it was fellow spinner Keogh who achieved the breakthrough just before the interval, castling the Leicestershire skipper for 32 with one that pitched and turned.

Rehan Ahmed should have followed without scoring soon after the resumption, driving Chahal straight to mid-on only for Sanderson to fumble the catch, one of several instances of sloppiness in the field.

Despite that, Northants captured wickets at regular intervals, with Budinger – having reached his first half-century of the campaign – leg before to the fit-again Jack White and Louis Kimber nudging Sanderson behind.

Rehan belted Chahal over the top for two sixes in his quickfire 30, but picked out the long-off fielder when he tried it a third time before Ben Cox swung and missed to provide the spinner with another wicket.

Liam Trevaskis, who survived what looked suspiciously like a bat-pad catch off Keogh, did enough to shepherd the Leicestershire innings beyond 200, finishing unbeaten on 25 as the spinners cleaned up the tail on the stroke of tea.

In the absence of Prithvi Shaw, who has returned to India, and the injured Ricardo Vasconcelos, Luke Procter opened the batting for Northants.

He launched the home side’s response with an unconvincing edge off Holland that whistled between first and second slips, but the skipper soon settled down and advanced the scoring rate with a series of cleaner strokes.

Having rattled off an uncharacteristically rapid 38 from 36 balls, Procter was caught behind swishing outside off stump at Currie – who also pinned George Bartlett in front for a fifth-ball duck in his next over.

Gus Miller batted solidly, digging out a vicious yorker from Currie before he began to play with greater freedom and looked on course for a maiden half-century as he dispatched successive Tom Scriven deliveries to the rope.

However, those hopes were dashed when Miller was given out lbw to Scriven for 37, despite appearing to get a thick edge onto his pads and it was left to Sales and Keogh to steer their side through to the close.