STEVEN Davies reached a half century for Worcestershire at Wantage Road in the early stages of the second day against Northamptonshire.

He was on 79 not out, with Worces-tershire 163-3 after 54 overs in reply to Northants' 299.

Yesterday it was Shoaib Akhtar who was the Worcestershire star.

He ripped the heart out of Northamptonshire's batting as he took five wickets in the hour after lunch to reduce the hosts to 173-8 after they had been 150-1.

The 'Rawalpindi Express' was at his lightning-quick best as he had the Northants middle-order stumps cartwheeling -- with five of his six victims clean bowled.

Northants skipper David Sales won the toss and chose to bat, and after Kabir Ali had Bilal Shafayat caught by Graeme Hick, the hosts piled on the runs.

Shafayat's dismissal did not hold Australian Martin Love and Tim Roberts back as they raced to 145-1 at lunch.

Roberts reached his half-century with a four through the covers soon after lunch, but there the free-scoring ended as Akhtar found his range.

The 29-year-old forced Roberts (53) to sky a catch to Ray Price and Usman Afzaal went for a duck.

Captain Sales came in at five but could do little to halt the flurry of wickets as Akhtar proved unplayable. He bowled Love for 74, Riki Wessels for a duck, Damien Wright for four and Ben Phillips without scoring.

And when Matthew Mason had Johann Louw caught by Zander de Bruyn for one, Northamptonshire had lost seven wickets for just 23 runs.