The Nottinghamshire bowlers restricted Northamptonshire to 195-5 on the second and final day of their friendly encounter with wickets for three of the pace attack. The Notts batsmen then had ample time at the crease for key practice ahead of the new season and reached 117-3 at the close.
Northants made seven changes to the side that played on Monday in order to give all of their travelling players a run out.
The format of the two day friendly saw Northants start their second innings straight away in the morning rather than continue on with their unbeaten first innings of the night before.
Matthew Spriegel could not recapture the groove of the night before as he was caught at slip by Riki Wessels off the bowling of Harry Gurney for a duck giving Notts the early breakthrough that was hard to find in the first innings.
Kyle Coetzer and David Sales set about rebuilding after that early loss and did so by sharing a half-century stand for the second wicket. Andy Carter was then introduced into the attack and found good bounce in a pitch that had something in it for the bowlers.
Carter then dismissed Coetzer, who was one of the seven changes in place for Stephen Peters, getting a ball to straighten and take the edge. Chris Read did the rest as Northants found themselves 65-2 midway through the first session.
There were no further alarms for Northants in the first session as the experienced David Sales reached fifty and he was ably backed up by Northants’ captain for the day, Alex Wakely.
After lunch, the visitors found themselves four down within a matter of minutes with Carter removing two batsmen in the same over. First, he found the edge of Wakely in similar fashion to his first dismissal yet Read had more work to do to complete the catch. Then Rob Newton was dismissed for another Northants duck, trapped LBW.
There was more rebuilding work to be done and Sales was intent on seeing Northants to a decent score. With some help from Andrew Hall, dismissed by Jake Ball for 18, and David Murphy, 10 not out at the interval, Sales reached his hundred. This ensured Northants moved in front of Notts and set a total of 44 to win for the home side with Sales finishing on 109*.
A change from the first innings batting order saw Notts open with Michael Lumb and Chris Read. The pair stayed together until the Northants run target had been passed with more than an hour of play remaining.
Read then fell LBW to the bowling of Hall for 30 but Wessels joined Lumb and kept the scoreboard ticking. That was before the same bowler dismissed Wessels for 12 leaving Notts on 79-2.
Lumb batted through to the close of play finishing on 56 with the help of Sam Wood and Paul Franks, the latter falling to the bowling of Spriegel for 12.