Strauss on the verge

Andrew Strauss was left tantalisingly close to a career-best score as Middlesex put Northamptonshire to the sword on day one of the LV County Championship Division Two dead rubber at Wantage Road.

The England opener had smashed an unbeaten 164 just four overs after the tea interval and was closing in on his first-class best of 177, achieved in England's final Test in Napier last winter, when the umpires deemed the light to be unfit and the players were taken off the field with the visitors on 291 for one.

The 31-year-old let umpires Neil Mallender and John Steele know exactly where he stood but the officials were not to be swayed and the left-hander was forced to leave the field in touching distance of the personal milestone.

Strauss' majestic score came from 199 balls with 25 fours and two sixes but it was not all plain sailing for Middlesex as he and fellow opener Billy Godleman had a tough time in some testing early conditions.

Godleman was dropped without scoring as the unlucky David Wigley found the edge a number of times.

The former Worcestershire and Yorkshire man bowled beautifully but nothing went to hand, leaving the 26-year-old with the unflattering figures of 83 runs for no wickets off 16 overs.

Andrew Strauss neared his personal best score before bad light ended play early

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The visitors' openers batted through the torrid period and Godleman managed to compile 41 in an impressive opening stand of 101.

But the 19-year-old fell short of registering his 10th first-class fifty - pushing forward to attempt a paddle sweep, he overbalanced and Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O'Brien made no mistake to whip the bails off.

Any thoughts of a fightback from the home side were quickly despatched as Owais Shah strode to the crease.

Shah, who has amassed 769 runs in his 11 LV County Championship appearances this season, played watchfully early on but breezed to his half-century 40 minutes after the lunch break when he took seven off a Steven Crook over.

And Strauss moved past the 150 mark in the 62nd over when Northamptonshire captain Nicky Boje was forced to resort to 22-year-old Riki Wessels to try to break the Shah-Strauss dominance.

Wessels, son of former South Africa and Australia international Kepler, picked a tricky time to send down his debut first-class delivery and it showed as Strauss milked him expertly to reach the milestone.

The England top-order batsman smashed Wessels' third delivery for four and added two more runs before striking another boundary to take him ever closer to his lifetime best.

Strauss picked up where he had left off after the tea break, hammering 10 off a Mark Nelson over.

Nelson, celebrating his 22nd birthday today, made the mistake of dropping short to Strauss and he smashed a boundary through midwicket before effortlessly lifting a six over backward square-leg to take him to 163.

But that was almost Strauss' last opportunity to add to his impressive total as the umpires made their decision and the light failed to improve, causing proceedings to be halted for the day.