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Northamptonshire C.C.C - Rise To The Top

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  • #46
    Good luck in the T20's.

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    • #47
      Here's how the table stands with 4 games to go as we head into the Blast. Still in with a shot of promotion, although our inconsistency will have to be overturned as it will hold us back otherwise.

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      • #48
        T20 Blast North Group
        Durham v Northamptonshire

        Not going to go as in-depth for the Blast matches, as there's so many of the pesky things I will do if we get into the position of playing any big games in the competition (doubt it!)

        Team: Rossington (C + WK), Levi, Cobb, Thurston, Ashraf, Pretorius, Sole, Zaib, Arshad, Hutton, Cotton.

        Thoughts behind the selection - ultra aggressive top 3, Thurston at 4 less so to hopefully steady the ship if we lose early wickets, a whole host of all rounders including our two T20 overseas, and giving Cotton a chance to make an impact. Adam Rossington will captain the team during the Blast as Alex Wakely won't be playing in it.

        We won the toss, batted and made 153 which is better than what I was expecting when Levi had his furniture re-arranged second ball of the innings. Rossington and Cobb put together a deluxe 70 stand although not that quickly, and Pretorius/Arshad came in with some lusty blows towards the end. Durham were in trouble early at 29-4 before steadying the ship and looking certain for victory, requiring just 12 runs off 3 overs with 5 wickets remaining, but 2 wickets in 2 balls from Pretorius gave them a huge scare. They eventually fell over the line with a wicket remaining but we came close to an unlikely and to be honest a probably undeserved victory.

        Northamptonshire: 153-8 (Rossington 49, Cobb 40 - Wilkins 3-37, Raine 2-34)

        Durham: 154-9 (Steel 43, Raine 38 - Ashraf 2-9, Pretorius 2-30)

        Durham win by 1 wicket.??????

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        • #49
          T20 Blast North Group
          Nottinghamshire v Northamptonshire

          Rossington is struggling with his fitness a tad, so Vasconcelos replaces him as opener, whilst Josh Cobb takes over the captaincy.

          Our innings followed a very similar pattern to the last game; Vasconcelos went early, whilst Levi tried to explode but couldn't get it away well enough and laboured to a run a ball 31. There were contributions all the way down, notably from Pretorius again, but as with the Durham game our total wasn't enough. There were no heroics with the ball either as Notts chased down the target easily.

          Poor start to the Blast.

          Northamptonshire: 158-9 (Pretorius 36, Levi 31 - Chappell 3-32, Mullaney 2-23)

          Nottinghamshire: 162-6 (Hales
          44, Parker 25* - Arshad 2-37)

          Nottinghamshire win by 4 wickets.

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          • #50
            T20 Blast North Group
            Northamptonshire v Warwickshire

            Third time lucky and we have some success in the blast! With our lowest total so far as well. Warwickshire put us in and we struggled to 148, saved again by some power hitting towards the end this time from Ashraf and Arshad. But despite 48 from Sam Hain, he kept losing partners at the other end and we bowled Warwickshire out with 2 overs left still 13 short of our score. Impressive bowling figures from Ashraf as well as he scooped player of the match.

            Northamptonshire: 148-9 (Ashraf 42, Levi 23 - Agar 3-22, Norwell 3-31)

            Warwickshire: 135 (Hain 48, Hose 32 - Ashraf 4-21, Arshad 3-25)

            Northamptonshire win by 13 runs.

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            • #51
              T20 Blast North Group
              Northamptonshire v Yorkshire

              Adam Rossington was welcomed back into the team for this one, I made the rare decision for me of bowling first as we've posted 3 average totals so far, maybe we're better chasing.

              When Jonny Bairstow and Gary Ballance were bashing it around early doors I started to regret this decision, but Yorkshire went into their shells after Zaib removed Bairstow. There was another partnership with Winwood, but nowhere near as swashbuckling as earlier, and what looked like a 170+ early doors was restricted to a more than chaseable 155.

              Richard Levi was absolutely sublime in the chase. Smashing it to all parts after a couple of overs to settle in. It was enthralling to watch as every ball at one stage seemed to be disappearing, Cobb played the supporting act and Charlie Thurston hit the winning runs still with 4 and a half overs to spare!

              A quite superb win over a Yorkshire side containing all its stars including ex player David Willey. 2 wins and 2 defeats now.

              Yorkshire: 155-5 (Ballance 63, Winwood 33 - Cotton 2-29)

              Northamptonshire: 156-2 (Levi 92*, Cobb 47),

              Northamptonshire win by 8 wickets (still with 4.5 overs left!)

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              • #52
                T20 Blast North Group
                Northamptonshire v Derbyshire

                Our next game was a bit of a thriller. We elected to field again after winning the toss, didn't have much choice after the Yorkshire run chase! Ben Curran came in for a shot at the shorter format after being dropped from the first class team, whilst Luke Procter replaced Urban Arshad.

                Derbyshire were scoring heavily and consistently throughout their innings but we were taking wickets. There were still over 2 overs left when we dismissed them for 168, Hutton claiming 3 victims. I let Levi loose again in the run chase but unfortunately he fell for just 8 trying to hit one out the ground towards Luton, Rossington and Cobb put together a good stand for the 2nd wicket before a mini collapse saw us at 127-5 with 5 overs remaining - 42 runs required off 30 balls. Wickets kept falling but we managed to get it down to 6 to win off the last ball. Big Brett Hutton was on strike... A highlight appeared which excited me and... Off stump cartwheeled.

                Derbyshire: 168 (McKiernan 38, Madsen 31 - Hutton 3-28, Pretorius 2-24)

                Northamptonshire: 163-9 (Rossington 46, Cobb 41 - Stanlake 3-34, Watt 2-28)

                Derbyshire win by 5 runs.


                That's all I've played for now

                2 wins and 3 losses from the opening 5 games, not the best but I expected worse I think!

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                • #53
                  T20 Blast North Group
                  Northamptonshire v Durham

                  I've brought a couple of the players from the first class team into the team, primarily to strengthen the T20 side and also to keep them in touch with first team action. The template of the side is still the same though with 4 aggressive batsmen, a neutral one, 4 all rounders and 2 seam bowlers. Unfortunately Ashraf has gone away on international duty after a great start to the Blast campaign for us.

                  Team: Rossington (C + WK), Levi, Cobb, Bavuma, Curran, Pretorius, Sole, Zaib, Procter, Muzarabani, Cotton.

                  We appear to be developing an average total of around the 150 mark every time when batting first, which isn't bad but almost always means it'll come down to our bowling. Our total also depends on whether Rossington and Levi come off at the top of the order or whether they struggle to get going. Our best partnership came between Josh Cobb and Ben Curran, who put on 67 for the 4th wicket. Just like the previous Blast game against Durham we took early wickets including the big scalp of Ben Stokes, but a mid-innings stand rebuilt their innings. We eventually removed Steel for 28 and after that they finally fully collapsed, and with 7 balls remaining we bowled them out just 7 short of our target.

                  We've made a habit out of losing close games so far this season so it's nice to finally win one, and with 6 games gone in the group we have a 50% record.

                  Northamptonshire: 156-9 (Curran 40, Cobb 39 - Stokes 2-25, Rushworth 2-26)

                  Durham: 149 (Short 73, Steel 28 - Pretorius 4-34, Cotton 2-17)

                  Northamptonshire win by 7 runs.

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    T20 Blast North Group
                    Leicestershire v Northamptonshire

                    Levi went berserk from the get-go again this match, and it was only the 3rd over when he snicked behind for 24. This gave Cobb and Bavuma a good platform to build on and they put on a good stand, but when we lost them two in consecutive balls it stunted our progress somewhat and again we can't seem to get past those 150s!

                    To lose just 4 wickets and end up on only 156 again is disappointing to be honest, and this time we didn't take early wickets. Leicestershire got off to a flyer and despite Stefan Zaib slowing them down in the middle overs they won comfortably in the end, thanks in the most part down to a half century from Colin Ackermann. Griffiths brought up the win with a maximum.

                    Northamptonshire: 156-4 (Cobb 44, Bavuma 43 - Griffiths 2-35)

                    Leicestershire: 161-6 (Ackermann 50, Griffiths 33* - Muzarabani 3-37, Zaib 2-20)

                    Leicestershire win by 4 wickets.

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      T20 Blast North Group
                      Worcestershire v Northamptonshire

                      What a thriller

                      Rather predictably we ended up at the 150 mark, which this time is a lot better than the others considering we were restricted to 11-3. The ever impressive Josh Cobb helped us recover with partnerships with Curran and more so Pretorius, who has been a key player for us in this Blast campaign so far. Muzarabani also provided a couple of brutal 6s in the death overs.

                      In their reply, we had Worcestershire in all sorts of trouble at 51-5 down to some superb bowling from Cotton, Muzarabani and Procter. Ross Whiteley was a thorn in our sides though, and he guided his team to the very last over, and down to the final ball when he was on strike needing 3 to win and 2 to tie. Pretorius nailed his yorker and they could only manage a single, we win by a solitary run!

                      Northamptonshire: 150-9 (Pretorius 52, Cobb 38 - Parnell 3-38, Pennington 2-22)

                      Worcestershire: 149-6 (Whiteley 73* - Pretorius 2-29, Muzarabani 2-31)

                      Northamptonshire win by 1 run.

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        T20 Blast North Group
                        Northamptonshire v Lancashire

                        With the aggressive approach I take with the bat, I was half expecting a game like this to arrive eventually. James Faulkner destroyed us early doors, and it was only Levi's slightly less gung-ho 36 that added some slight respectability to the scoreline.

                        Absolutely hammered! Maybe I should start re-thinking my approach, as when Rossington/Levi don't get us off to a flyer we're in a spot of bother.

                        Northamptonshire: 99 (Levi 36 - Faulkner 4-15, Barley 2-36)

                        Lancashire: 100-2 (Jennings 56*)

                        Lancashire win by 8 wickets.


                        Our Blast campaign so far - LLWWLWLWL

                        All I ask for is consistency

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                        • #57
                          T20 Blast North Group
                          Northamptonshire v Leicestershire

                          I intended to revert to chasing at the toss for this match, but as it happened the decision was taken out of my hands as Leicestershire won it and elected to bat anyway. We bowled absolutely superbly this game; probably the best of the campaign so far. We kept the wickets coming on a consistent basis which restricted their scoring majorly, and when we bowled them out for just 125 there was only 5 balls left.

                          After the last game I debated breaking up the opening duo but I let them loose for another shot and I was glad I did. It was them who took the game away from Leicestershire early doors as they got us to 58 after just 6 overs. This set the foundations for a comfortable victory, Rossington carrying his bat throughout the chase.

                          Leicestershire: 125 (Ackermann 30, Blake 27 - Cotton 3-24, Pretorius 2-19)

                          Northamptonshire: 129-3 (Rossington 55*, Curran 27* - Klein 2-29)

                          Northamptonshire win by 7 wickets.

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                          • #58
                            Our whole campaign has been littered with inconsistency in all formats so far, but we have given ourselves a chance of qualifying with 4 group games remaining.

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                            • #59
                              T20 Blast North Group
                              Derbyshire v Northamptonshire

                              If ever there was a time I'm pleased I didn't tinker it's after this match. Some explosive hitting from Wayne Madsen and Leus de Plooy set us a challenging target of 169, and after nearly being split up a couple of games ago Rossington and Levi erupted for the second game running, getting us well ahead of the run rate early. Levi reached the 90s for the second time in this Blast campaign, off just 44 balls, and by the time he got out in the 18th over the scores were already level.

                              Back to back wins for only the second time in the Blast and I'm starting to believe for the first time that we might actually be able to qualify here.

                              Derbyshire: 168-6 (Madsen 68*, du Plooy 66 - Pretorius 2-22, Procter 2-33)

                              Northamptonshire: 169-4 (Levi 93, Cobb 33 - Palladino 2-29)

                              Comment


                              • #60
                                T20 Blast North Group
                                Warwickshire v Northamptonshire

                                There were no heroics from Levi here, but him and Rossington still got us off to a fair start. Our blast matches are pretty much determined by whether they get us off to a good start or not. When they do it takes the pressure off the incoming batsmen, as Josh Cobb and Ben Curran demonstrated here with a quickfire 82 partnership as we achieved our highest total when batting first - 164.

                                It was then over to the bowlers and probably our key player in the whole T20 team Dwayne Pretorius. His economical bowling of 4 overs for 12 runs (I almost never bowl out the openers in T20, but it seemed foolish not to on this occasion!) really put the Warwickshire batsmen under pressure and they threw their wickets away rapidly. They fell well short of the target we set, England international Chris Woakes providing the only real resistance.

                                Unbelievable!

                                Northamptonshire: 164-6 (Cobb 55*, Curran 44 - Norwell 2-29, Woakes 2-34)

                                Warwickshire: 119 (Woakes 43 - Zaib 3-21, Muzarabani 3-33)

                                Northamptonshire win by 45 runs.


                                We travel to Headingley next, where a win will all but secure us a place in the Quarter-Finals.

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