Northamptonshire C.C.C - Rise To The Top

[DaveRobbo]

T20 Blast North Group
Yorkshire v Northamptonshire

A win here would have been good dust, but we were well and truly brought back down to Earth with a bump with a heavy defeat.

We put them into bat, which didn't turn out well. They smashed our bowlers all over, Joe Root and Gary Ballance doing most of the damage as they set us a monster target of 200

I'm not one to give up without a fight but at the back of my mind I was half thinking about our tournament run rate rather than whether we could chase it down. In the end I just decided to give the batsmen a free swing, we didn't disgrace ourselves but still fell well, well short.

Yorkshire: 199-6 (Root 61, Ballance 47 - Pretorius 2-41)

Northamptonshire: 147 (Levi 74 - Olivier 5-28, Willey 2-38

Yorkshire win by 52 runs.

We had some good news after the match though as Lancashire beat Worcestershire at Old Trafford. With Notts, Yorkshire and Durham already having the first 3 spots sown up, and us and Worcestershire level on 14 points, it's essentially a straight knockout match between us and them on the last group game of the Blast.

So, basically a last 16 tie to come against Worcestershire at New Road! Too nervous to play it at the minute. I heard their ground's flooded again though, so maybe we'll get sent through by default

[DaveRobbo]

Actually it turns out the crunch T20 game is at our ground, not New Road but before that we have an important County Championship match against the same opponents, also at Northampton.

I'm not sure which I'd rather win if I could only choose one. Hmm, would have to be the Championship one I think.

Northamptonshire:

Curran, Newton, Wakely (C), Bavuma, Levi, Cobb, Rossington, Zaib, Procter, Muzarabani, Sanderson.

Three changes from our last FC game, Ben Curran's form in the Blast sees him rewarded with a second chance in the red ball team, he replaces Keogh whilst Stefan Zaib comes in for Charlie Thurston. The third change was always going to be Muzarabani for Buck as he has returned from injury.

Worcestershire:

D'Olieviera, Mitchell, Ferguson, Wessels, Ali, Parnell, Cox, Barnard, Leach, Brown, Azarullah.

The toss has been uncontested and we will be batting first.

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Worcestershire

Worcestershire quite rightly put us into bat looking at the conditions, cloudy first day followed by a sunny one the next. Both openers managed to get starts but couldn't push on, and it was only Alex Wakely in the top order who made it past 30 as we limped to 84-4 at lunch. It got worse shortly after when Cobb went for a duck; valuable contributions from Rossington, Procter and a half century from Zaib though got us over 250 though which I was happy with in these conditions.

However the game was taken away from us on the second day as Worcestershire made the most of good batting conditions, our front line seamers struggled and a well crafted century from Moeen Ali, as well as 93 from Ben Cox gave the visitors a very healthy first innings lead. Josh Cobb and Luke Procter were the most successful of our bowlers.

Our second innings was even poorer than the first: from 95-1 we somehow managed to contrive to collapse to 172-8, really summoning up the spirit of a couple of Championship games earlier in the season. In fact we just narrowly avoided the follow on.

A very poor result which really dents any hopes of promotion we had. Can't see that happening now, and not a good confidence builder for the Blast decider against the same opponents next up.

Northamptonshire: 263 (Zaib 58*, Wakely 49 - Barnard 4-64, Parnell 2-12)

Worcestershire: 446 (Ali 108, Cox 93 - Cobb 3-65, Procter 3-98)

Northamptonshire: 200 (Newton 43, Cobb 33 - Parnell 4-33, Azarullah 3-28)

Worcestershire: 19-1

Worcestershire win by 9 wickets.

[DaveRobbo]

T20 Blast North Group
Northamptonshire v Worcestershire

13 games played so far, 7 wins and 6 defeats and it all comes down to this and what is essentially a straight knockout game between us and Worcestershire, who have just beaten us over 4 days.

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

This has been the best T20 side we've fielded through the group, so I had every faith they'd be able to get us over the line one more time.

Worcestershire won the toss and elected to bowl.

Throughout the campaign I've talked about how crucial it is to our innings that the openers get us off to a fast start. Levi didn't manage it this time, but Rossington did, cracking 45 off just 20 deliveries and where he left off Ben Curran managed to pick up from. Wickets were falling at the other end but contributions were also being made in support of the two top scorers this innings - and an absolutely monumental last over of 20 from Tom Sole saw us reach out highest total by far - 180 which I was delighted with. A mammoth effort with the bat when we really needed it.

But it wasn't over, far from it. Overseas opener Martin Guptill got Worcestershire off to a flyer, but Ben Cotton managed to claim his wicket before he got devastating. Fell also batted well for Worcestershire, although he took the role of ticking along whilst his partners went more aggressive. As they fell behind the run rate, Cotton was brought back into the attack and captured 3 wickets in an over to put us on the verge of victory, which we wrapped up in the penultimate over when Muzarabani pinned Pat Brown in front of middle stump.

Northamptonshire: 180-8 (Rossington 48, Curran 46 - Barnard 3-27, Parnell 2-35)

Worcestershire: 159 (Fell 40, Guptill 29 - Cotton 4-38, Muzarabani 2-28)

Northamptonshire win by 21 runs and qualify for the quarter-finals.

Here's the confirmation. Over the moon with this one especially as after just two games I contemplated sacking off the Blast this year and giving the fringe players a chance!

[MateGaming]

Great work in the Blast! Looking forward to seeing how you do in the later stages.

[GrahamB]

Nice work in the T20 comp.
Good luck in the playoffs!

[DaveRobbo]

Great work in the Blast! Looking forward to seeing how you do in the later stages.

Cheers! It surprised me how well we did in it especially after kicking off with 2 defeats. A bit annoyed about the Championship game against Worcestershire though, think the Blast distracted me a bit from that one. Will probably have to win all 3 remaining games now to even have a chance of promotion.

[DaveRobbo]

Nice work in the T20 comp.
Good luck in the playoffs!

Thanks. I feel a bit fortunate to have got this far, as 99% of the time in depends on whether Rossington and Levi come off (literally set the aggression bars to the highest possible straightaway and give them a free swing) to whether we get a good start.

Not long to go this season now with 3 more first class games and *hopefully* 3 more T20s as well!

[DaveRobbo]

We now know who our opponents will be in the T20 Q/F and it doesn't get much tougher as we'll be heading to South London to take on South group winners Surrey.

That means our remaining fixtures this season are:

T20 QF at The Oval v Surrey
CCD2 at Leicester v Leicestershire
CCD2 at home to Durham
T20 Finals day at Edgbaston**
CCD2 at Bristol v Gloucestershire

** If we get past Surrey.

[DaveRobbo]

T20 Blast Quarter Final
Surrey v Northamptonshire

Only just got round to playing it, apparently decorating the hallway is more important than playing a crunch match on CC19 The cheek of it!

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

The key thing that jumps out there is the return of Ashraf. I felt I had no choice but to bring him back in for this one after his early season form. Very harsh on Bavuma who misses out, but I would have regretted it if I didn't make the change.

Surrey won the toss and elected to bowl.

It's definitely worth the wait as it was an absolute corker!

There's bad starts and then there's this though unfortunately. I stuck with my do or die tactic with the openers, sadly they went for the latter on this occasion as after Rossington launched one straight up in the air second ball, Levi snicked off the ball after and Josh Cobb didn't fancy hanging around either, we found ourselves sitting on a nausea-inducing 2-3, with one run between the top 3 combined and a wide. And when Morne Morkel continued this devastating spell by removing Curran and then Ashraf in his 3rd over, we were 13-5 and it was game over before it had even begun.

But Dwayne Pretorius wasn't reading from the same script. Our T20 player of the year saw off the Surrey openers, before going after their change of bowlers. Tom Sole and Stefan Zaib stuck around for a bit to help, but despite the recovery we were still 87-7 with 5 overs to go. Pretorius completed his outstanding half century but was losing partners, and with an over to go we had 112 with just a wicket left. The final over though was brilliant. First Pretorius launched a huge 6 over long on, followed by a late cut for 4, and a quick single. Ben Cotton took a wild swing and miss at ball 4, before sending one skywards, the catch was dropped and they managed to come back for 3, before Pretorius sent the last ball of the innings to the boundary. We made 130, and I still have absolutely no idea how we did so.

It was always going to be a titanic task to defend it though - and spirits weren't raised when Aaron Finch was in no mood to mess around at the start. Whilst he was going though, we were starving him of support by taking regular wickets, Muzarabani being our stand out bowler. With Finch still at the crease though I never believed we could win.

But in the 9th over we got him! More so he was screwed over by Will Jacks, who ran him out going for a suicidal run. And all of a sudden it was Surrey who were in trouble. 72-5 chasing just 130. They rebuilt a bit though, Jacks atoning for his error, but a magic over from Luke Procter saw him claim 2 scalps in as many balls and with 4 overs to go they needed 21 to win with 3 wickets remaining.

The bowling was brilliant. Economical and 2 more wickets followed, Muzarabani picking up his 4th sending Tom Curran back to the pavilion and Surrey were 120-9 heading into the final over. 10 to win with just a wicket left. Pretorius bowled it. First ball was squeezed away for a single. But with the second he sent down a toe crushing yorker and rattled the ball into leg stump! After being out of the competition after an over of our innings, we pulled off the most remarkable if victories.

Still can't believe this outcome and our magical, if sometimes flukey Blast run continues! We have somehow made it to Finals Day.

Northamptonshire: 130-9 (Pretorius 68* - Morkel 5-10, Plunkett 2-22)

Surrey: 121 (Finch 46, Jacks 26* - Muzarabani 4-26)

Northamptonshire win by 9 runs and progress to Finals Day at Edgbaston.

[MateGaming]

Wow! What a comeback! You’re bound to win finals day at this rate

[bryce87]

That was a great read! Well done!

[GrahamB]

Thanks. I feel a bit fortunate to have got this far, as 99% of the time in depends on whether Rossington and Levi come off (literally set the aggression bars to the highest possible straightaway and give them a free swing) to whether we get a good start.

Interesting tactic.

Great win in the first playoff match. Looking forward to the next!

[DaveRobbo]

Wow! What a comeback! You’re bound to win finals day at this rate

I think it's more likely to be "making up the numbers" on finals day

Actually it's Hampshire who are our opponents in the semi!

[DaveRobbo]

That was a great read! Well done!

Thanks very much!