County Championship: Luke Procter & Ryan Rickelton hit centuries as Northants draw with Bears

Luke Procter has now made seven made first-class centuries - three for his previous club Lancashire and four for Northants

Luke Procter posted a superb 144, his highest first-class score, as Northamptonshire batted out a draw on the final day against Warwickshire at Wantage Road.

Procter and Ryan Rickelton, who also scored a century, shared a record third-wicket stand of 226 in 51 overs.

It was Procter's third Championship ton of the season, while South African international Rickelton's 103 came came on his debut in county cricket.

Their stand followed a dramatic start to the day when spinner Simon Kerrigan mopped up Warwickshire's tail with two wickets in just 10 deliveries.

That gave Northamptonshire a 46-run first innings lead before the hosts then lost both openers inside four overs to offer the visitors a glimmer of hope.

• County Championship Division One table

• Relive final day's play in Championship as it happened

Home skipper Ricardo Vasconcelos fell in the first over, caught behind off Oliver Hannon-Dalby before Emilio Gay followed in similar fashion off Nathan McAndrew.

But, from there though Procter and Rickelton booked in for the afternoon to put any chance of an upset out of the equation.

Bears spinner Jacob Bethell, playing only his third first-class game, obtained plenty of turn and bounce and posed questions but he was taken out of the attack when Procter took advantage of a long hop and a full toss and dispatched both for six.

Racing through the nineties, Procter struck Lamb over deep midwicket for another maximum before running three to reach his ton off 126 balls..

Rickleton too began in aggressive fashion after lunch, taking five boundaries off Henry Brookes' first two overs. He went past 50 with a sumptuous drive down the ground and clubbed Matt Lamb for four more in the same direction.

He reached his century with two streaky shots off the outside edge before pulling a short ball from Lamb into the hands of deep midwicket. He had faced 167 deliveries and struck 18 boundaries and one maximum.

After the interval Warwickshire turned to their part-time bowlers including the rarely seen medium pace of keeper Michael Burgess who claimed his maiden first-class wicket when Rob Keogh chased a wide one and edged to Craig Miles, who was standing in as keeper.

But there were no further surprises though as Procter and Josh Cobb batted out the remaining overs.

Northamptonshire head coach John Sadler:

"The two lefties, Proccy and Ryan, were brilliant, so very calming. Proccy has been great for us all season. He's been in the form of his life and hopefully that's going to continue.

"Rickelton is world class. He's a Test cricketer, so it's nothing that he hasn't seen before. And really pleasing for him to get a hundred for us on his debut. It then sets him up nicely for the Kent game.

"We scored so quickly on day one, it put us in a great position, but obviously the time out the game on day two didn't help.

"At the start of April, I'm sure we would have taken thi. How the next six, seven, eight games look and how they unfold that could be very different. But right here, right now, the lads are in a great space."

Warwickshire head coach Mark Robinson told BBC Radio WM:

"We're missing Olly Stone, the skill of Chris Woakes and Liam Norwell, who's obviously not quite that pace, but has a point of difference, or you want a proper mystery spinner, and there's not many of those around.

"There's a lot of dry weather, there's been a drying wind and this wicket is quite dry and they were hoping it might turn, but it ended up being the winner.

"Jacob Bethell would have learned a lot. He probably over-attacked with his field if I'm honest. If he would have given himself a little bit more protection he'd have gone for a few less, but he landed it quite well. He probably tired the last two or three.

"But for the large part of the spell he bowled nicely as he did in the first innings as well. He probably had to bowl a little bit more than he should have done due to the fact we couldn't get control from the seamers."

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.