Oxfordshire batted themselves into a commanding position at stumps on day two of their Minor Counties Championship Western Division clash against Berkshire at Banbury yesterday.

The hosts closed on 194-3, a lead of 330 runs, after another impressive day in which Richard Kaufman added a fluent 80 to his first innings 156.

It was also a day full of plenty of niggle in the field, which increased as the game went on.

It will take a great effort to bowl Berkshire out on this pitch, but Oxon can be more than happy with their work so far.

Resuming on 75-1, Berkshire lost David Barnes early on when he became the second of five batsmen caught behind by Oxon skipper Ian Hawtin in his 100th Championship game.

Berks had to bat well to match Oxfordshire’s first innings scoring rate, but they could not put together a sizeable partnership until late on in their innings.

Chad Keegan (4-66) and Daniel Rowe (3-24) did most of the damage, although the latter only bowled 11 overs.

Rowe was on a hat-trick after removing Steve Naylor and Carl Crowe in successive balls.

But he saw his third delivery bounce just over the off stump after being left by keeper Stewart Davison.

Oxford seamer Tom Geeson-Brown was the other home wicket-taker, with a caught-and-bowled effort to dismiss Davison.

At 161-6, Berkshire looked like they might fail to reach the follow-on target of 281, but captain Bjorn Mordt (68) marshalled their tail well before being the eighth and last wicket to fall as the visitors closed on 295-8.

This gave Oxon a decent lead of 136, which they would certainly have taken before start of play on Sunday.

And it could have been more, had they not bowled 24 no balls in 40 extras.

Kaufman and Hawtin came out full of intent for Oxon’s second innings, the former in particular picking up where he had left off the day before.

Hawtin was well caught by Shaun Udal at slip after the ball flicked off Davison’s gloves to give Naylor the opening wicket, before Kaufman smashed the Berkshire man out of the attack with a belligerent 4-4-6 sequence.

Kaufman raced to 50 off 52 balls, with Charlie Knightley no slouch either.

Oxon were scoring at five runs per over before rain stopped play just before 6pm with the score at 113-1.

They resumed 15 minutes later, with Kaufman looking well set to emulate Jamie Perkin from the previous match against Dorset and bag a century in both innings.

But Kaufman was run out for 80 when he looked to have been impeded by Carl Crowe as he went to complete a quick single from Knightley.

This did not help a certain amount of bad blood that was building between the sides.

Knightley edged one to slip off left-arm spinner Luke Beaven’s first ball to fall four runs short of his 50, but he had played his part.

It was left to Richard West and Perkin to steer Oxon to a dominant position by the close.

Scores: Oxfordshire 431-8 (R Kaufman 156, J Perkin 83, D Rowe 82no) & 194-3 (R Kaufman 80), Berkshire 295-8 (B Mordt 68).