Cumbria and Cambridgeshire are delicately poised in their final NCCA Championship game at Peterborough ahead of the final day.
The visitors will start with a lead of 146 and five wickets in hand after both sides had managed almost 700 runs in their first innings.
Cumbria’s 342-8 saw their hosts respond with 355-7 – a lead of 13 – after both sides had batted for their 90 overs.
Before the start of play on the second day a minute’s silence was held in memory of Cumbria’s fine pace bowler David Lupton who died last week.
Cambridgeshire were resuming on 90-1 and wickets proved hard to come by as Wayne White and Daniel Andrew continued their second wicket partnership. It had reached 77 when Ben Walkden clean bowled White for 74.
Then Matthew Siddall removed three home batsmen for the addition of only 13 runs and Cumbria looked to be in with a chance of earning a good first innings lead with half the opposition out for 172.
That all changed with a sixth wicket stand of 128 before Andrew was bowled by Nico Watt for 107.
The tail wagged, too with Callum Guest (68), Ben Clilverd (25no) and Mohamad Danyaal (29no) steering Cambridgeshire into a first innings lead. Siddall bowled a marathon spell of 39 overs and finished with 4-174.
When Cumbria batted a second time Freddie Fallows (12) and Walkden (17) went early but a fine 51 from skipper Michael Slack helped by Matthew Sempill (21) saw them reach three figures.
First innings centurion Sam Dutton (28) was there at the close with Ben Davidson (6no) and an interesting final day is in prospect.
