Tripathi moved to his maiden Championship half century in 85 balls, but when he smashed Smith to Garry Park at mid on it sparked a collapse that saw the hosts lose seven wickets for 62 runs either side of a 40-minute rain delay.
Embarrassingly for Flintoff, he was bowled by the very occasional medium pace of Garry Park, the former wicket-keeper, who had just captured the scalp of Stuart Law for his maiden first-class wicket.