Career-best figures for Warwickshire's Hannon-Dalby

Hannon-Dalby’s superb seven for 46 sent the visitors all out for just 250 in a match they must win to preserve any realistic hopes of avoiding relegation.

That total looks a little under par but Jack White (three for 37) then led a big-hearted effort from Northamptonshire’s bowlers who made the home batters work very hard to reach 142 for four from 55 overs in reply. The match remains in the balance on a pitch which has assisted the seamers throughout. Hannon-Dalby will be on a hat-trick in the second innings when he will be hunting the three wickets he needs to reach 100 in two seasons – he is now on 44 this year to add to last season’s 53.

He said: “It’s always nice to get a career-best. I think I probably bowled better on the first day than I did today, but it often works like that in bowling, you often get your rewards in the day after or the game after.

“We said last night we had got our rewards late in the day and we wanted to carry that on straight away this morning. We did it because the way Briggsy and Milo started this morning was absolutely brilliant. That set the tone and it was a good effort on a good pitch to get them out for 250.

“It would have been nicer to get them out for 249, but to keep them to 250 was a really good effort. Now we’ve just got to try to get a good lead and put them under some pressure in the second half of the match.

“I’ll be starting on a hat-trick in the second innings. It happened a couple of times in the 50-over comp and I was close with play-and-misses from the first ball of the next game so hopefully first ball next innings, something special might happen.”