Northamptonshire C.C.C - Rise To The Top

[GrahamB]

Really heartbreaking to lose by 1 wicket, especially against the strong Lancashire side.

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Sussex

The next game couldn't come quickly enough after the way the last game ended. One change - Rob Keogh replaced Charlie Thurston who has struggled to make an impact with the bat. He'll bat at 4, with Bavuma moving down a place to 5.

Team: Curran, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Rossington (W/K), Cobb, Procter, Zaib, Mazurabani, Sanderson.

Toss uncontested; Sussex chose to bowl.

A lot of cloud cover and a slow outfield saw Sussex exercise their right to bowl first, I would have done the same to be honest. We got off to a solid enough start though, the openers reaching 60-0 before Curran was stupidly run out and this triggered a bit of a collapse. 60-0 turned to 91-3 at lunch and 158-7 not long after. Thankfully Luke Procter hung around a bit at 8 and we made a respectable total given the conditions, but I'd have liked more.

Their reply started excellently for us, Ben Sanderson ripping through their top order and Sussex were in serious trouble but a century partnership between Salt and Brown rescued them. They finished just 8 runs ahead of us, with Sanderson recording career best figures of 7-72.

After the last game I knew we needed a good second innings, thankfully this time we did. Ben Curran was probably the star of the show, making a good 77 against a strong Sussex attack. Bavuma added another half century, Rossington and Cobb contributed, and we set Sussex a target of 309. Sanderson shone again, but when 225-7 and game in the palm of our hands turned to 275-8 those familiar alarm bells were ringing. Thankfully though, we managed to close it out this time. Phew!

Northamptonshire: 262 (Newton 43, Procter 39 - Hamza 4-62, Robinson 3-85)

Sussex: 270 (Salt 77, Brown 57 - Sanderson 7-72)

Northamptonshire: 316 (Curran 77, Bavuma 60 - Beer 5-69, Robinson 4-89)

Sussex: 280 (Finch 71, Salt 45 - Sanderson 4-89, Procter 3-37.

Northamptonshire win by 28 runs.

[DaveRobbo]

Really heartbreaking to lose by 1 wicket, especially against the strong Lancashire side.

Yeah, it wasn't nice! I think our second innings was where we lost it though, even 20 or 30 more onto the target would have made a huge difference.
We bounced back well though even though the Sussex game brought back a few negative memories of the Lancashire game

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Glamorgan

No changes from the victory over Sussex, the first big thing I noticed about this match was that rain was forecast to heavily interfere with play in day 3. Conditions were looking good the first couple of days though.

Team: Curran, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Rossington (W/K), Cobb, Procter, Zaib, Muzarabani, Sanderson.

Northamptonshire won the toss and elected to bat.

We failed to make the most of nice batting conditions on the opening day as we were bowled out for 210 by a side we comfortably beat just a few weeks ago. That's two below par first innings in a row now and we seem to be losing our way a little with the bat. It was made worse by Glamorgan going on to more than double our score, and quickly as well. Centuries from both Root and Ingram put them in a ccommanding position after the first session of Day 3.

The rain really needed to come to our rescue at this point and to a certain extent it did, the afternoon session was wiped out (I was hoping for it to be the rest of the day!). In the end it didn't make a difference as we only narrowly improved on our first innings total, a 91 partnership between Keogh and Bavuma the only highlight, setting Glamorgan an extremely modest victory target which they reached with ease.

A disappointing defeat. Not really getting any consistency going here, D-W-L-W-L in the Championship so far.

Northamptonshire: 210 (Newton 55, Rossington 44 - van der Gugten 3-59, Hogan 2-55)

Glamorgan: 433 (Root 156, Ingram 114 - Keogh 4-79, Zaib 3-135)

Northamptonshire: 263 (Keogh 81, Bavuma 63 - van der Gugten 4-62, de Lange 3-66)

Glamorgan: 41-2 (Labuschagne 20*, Murphy 15 - Mazurabani 2-24)

Glamorgan win by 8 wickets.

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Durham v Northamptonshire

Couple of changes to the team. All rounder for all rounder as Arshad returned in place of Procter, and after the below par batting recently I decided to bring back Thurston for another chance for Zaib. Not a lot of bowling in the line-up, but the two part time spinners in Keogh and Cobb have been reliable when called upon so I'm putting more faith in them to support the pace attack of Sanderson, Muzarabani and Arshad.

Team: Curran, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Rossington (C), Cobb, Thurston, Arshad, Muzarabani, Sanderson.

Northamptonshire won the toss and elected to bat.

It was a road so failure to make runs on here would really start ringing alarm bells. Thankfully though we did post a big total for the first time in a while, led by the captain who was in need of a good knock after an indifferent start to the season. He was supported well by cameos from Keogh and Bavuma, and Thurston justified my risky decision to bring him in with a half century.

Durham struggled a bit in their response; our bowling was impressive on such a good batting track especially the openers. Arshad struggled, but Cobb and Keogh both picked up a wicket apiece. Their highlight was a Richardson century but we had a lead of over 100 from the first innings, and my plan was to bat aggressively until the end of day 3 to give ourselves a full final day to bowl them out.

That seemed a good idea anyway, but when 27-4 was staring back at me a few minutes later I had to put the breaks on a bit. A quickfire 30 from Temba Bavuma though, along with a 90 stand between Rossington and Cobb hauled us over the 200 mark and set Durham a target of 358 on the final day. Achievable, but we were favourites.

Durham didn't seem to fancy going for the runs on the final day though which suited us down to the ground. They still needed 150 from the final session with only 3 wickets in hand. Another frustrating partnership meant we had 10 overs to get two wickets, and then 4 overs to get the last one. With the seamers knackered, it was over to the spinners with everyone crowding around the bat. Wasn't to be again though, not getting much luck at the moment. 32 points thrown away in the Lancashire and Durham games!

Northamptonshire: 431 (Wakely 154, Thurston 77 - Weighell 5-87, Rushworth 3-104)

Durham: 310 (Richardson 155, Raine 49 - Muzarabani 4-91, Sanderson 3-76)

Northamptonshire: 237-9 dec (Rossington 64, Cobb 47 - Salisbury 4-40, Rushworth 3-65)

Durham: 271-9 (Eckersley 65 - Keogh 3-63, Muzarabani 3-78)

Match Drawn.

[MateGaming]

So unlucky not to get the win again! Luck doesn't seem to be with you at the moment

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Leicestershire

Same team as the draw against Durham.

Team: Curran, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Rossington (W/K), Cobb, Thurston, Arshad, Muzarabani, Sanderson.

Northamptonshire won the toss and elected to bat.

The only word to sum this one up - ouch! Absolutely humiliated at the hands of 2nd place Leicestershire. The opening partnership has to change as Curran and Newton can barely get us to double figures without one of them departing. Bavuma was the only batsman to pass 20, extras was our second highest scorer! Rolled out for 140 by halfway through the afternoon session.

To add insult to injury Ackermann and Cosgrove brutally dismantled us with a savage 270 partnership, the former made a double century as they passed 500. So we can't bat and we can't bowl at the moment!

At least we showed some fight in our second innings to avoid the follow on, but we simply cannot be happy with this match. I'm not happy with the balance of the team at the moment and the team selection for the next Championship game against Sussex, a side we have recently beaten, will be a tough one.

Northamptonshire: 140 (Bavuma 52 - Lilley 3-22, Parkinson 3-55)

Leicestershire: 505-4 dec (Ackermann 251*, Cosgrove 171 - Sanderson 3-120)

Northamptonshire: 369 (Wakely 83, Newton 78 - Lilley 3-82, Griffiths 3-134)

Leicestershire: 6-0

Leicestershire win by 10 wickets.

[DaveRobbo]

So unlucky not to get the win again! Luck doesn't seem to be with you at the moment

Unfortunately not! Don't think I can blame luck on the last one though

[GrahamB]

Hopefully your fortunes will turn around quickly.
How are you placed on the points table?

[DaveRobbo]

Hopefully your fortunes will turn around quickly.
How are you placed on the points table?

We crashed to 7th after the Leicestershire shambles I believe, got 3 more games ready to update tonight though so we get a screenshot of the table after those

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Sussex v Northamptonshire

I said post-Leicestershire that the team selection for this one would be difficult. The opening partnership had to be broken up and it was Ben Curran who paid the price for poor form, replaced by Vasconcelos who will also keep wicket as Rossington misses this one with a minor injury. Richard Levi also comes in. I'm sticking with the 3 seam - 2 "part time" spinners attack for now.

Team: Vasconcelos (W/K), Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Cobb, Levi, Thurston, Arshad, Buck, Sanderson.

Sussex won the toss and elected to bat.

I wanted a response with the ball here, and got one. Ben Sanderson took 3 early Sussex wickets, whilst Nathan Buck kept the scoring down, and Arshad came on first change to do some damage as well. There was a brief show of resistance in the way of a partnership between Salt and Brown, but we managed to bowl Sussex out for 229.

The new look opening partnership got us to that dreaded double figure mark at least, but not much further as Vasconcelos had to retire hurt soon after. Rob Newton batted well though, I've probably been a bit harsh on him to be honest as he's contributed a fair bit. Him and Temba Bavuma both passed 50 and there were contributions from Wakely and Cobb as well as we built up a nice lead of 105 runs.

Sussex only improved on their first effort with the bat slightly as Nathan Buck starred with a 5 wicket haul. We were set 139 to win - let's hope the early season Northants show up and not the recent one!

Alex Wakely opened in place of the injured Vasconcelos, with Josh Cobb set to come in at 3 if there was an early wicket as he has experience of opening the batting in the past. We lost the skipper early, but Newton and Cobb both hit half centuries to get us over the line comfortably.

How can we go from such a shocking performance to a well rounded, impressive one as this! Inconsistency has been the name of the game so far.


?Sussex: 229 (Brown 42, Salt 38 - Sanderson 4-51, Arshad 3-50)

Northamptonshire: 334 (Bavuma 63, Newton 62 - Robinson 3-106, Hamza 3-82)

Sussex: 243 (Wells 68, Salt 48 - Buck 5-73, Arshad 3-44)

Northamptonshire: 141-1 (Cobb 60*, Newton 58*)

Northamptonshire win by 8 wickets (Vasconcelos was not going to bat again).

[GrahamB]

Great win against Sussex! Woohoo!

So much for the new opening partnership though. Next game should be interesting.

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Northamptonshire v Lancashire

With Vasconcelos injured, Josh Cobb was promoted to opening the batting after having success in the run chase against Sussex, and in the one day competition earlier in the season. Adam Rossington returns to the team.

Team: Cobb, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Levi, Rossington (W/K), Thurston, Arshad, Buck, Sanderson.

Toss uncontested; Lancashire chose to bowl.

Conditions in Northampton looked good for the bowlers, my attention was also averted towards the possibility of losing a lot of the final day due to rain. We batted cautiously in the morning, perhaps too cautiously as we went into into lunch at 90-5. However a century partnership in the afternoon session between Thurston and Rossington saw us recover, and a further 40 from Usman Arshad saw us fall just short of 300 - very respectable given the conditions.

We then produced by far and away our best bowling performance of the season! Clearly out for revenge after the way the reverse fixture ended, our opening duo of Sanderson and Buck absolutely ripped through the Lancashire top order, having them an incredible 33-6 and I couldn't really believe what I was witnessing. Considering this was a hapless attack that got smashed for 500 just two games ago this was a phenomenal turnaround.

Wary of the final day potential washout, the decision was made to have a real go at the Lancashire bowlers in the final session of day 2, hopefully declare overnight and treat the 3rd day as the last one. For once a plan I concocted worked, we lost wickets but built up a lead of over 350 which would be incredibly tricky for Lancashire to chase down, it proved far too tricky despite a much improved second innings effort with the bat.

Back to back wins, couldn't really have asked for a better response after the crushing defeat against Leicestershire.

Northamptonshire: 291 (Thurston 60, Rossington 52 - Mahmood 6-56, Gleeson 2-60)

Lancashire: 95 (Buck 4-39, Arshad 3-15)

Northamptonshire: 165-9 dec (Bavuma 81* - Bailey 5-82, Gleeson 4-83)

Lancashire: 229 (Jennings 64, Vilas 44 - Arshad 3-49, Buck 3-80)

Northamptonshire win by 132 runs.

Bizarrely Lancashire's Mahmood got POTM - Not sure about that one.

One more Championship game to go against Derbyshire before the Blast.

???

[DaveRobbo]

County Championship Division Two
Derbyshire v Northamptonshire

The phantom question marks are back!

Unchanged from the superb victory over Lancashire - Cobb has another go opening with Newton in an attempt to arrest the clear problem at the top of the order.

Team: Cobb, Newton, Wakely (C), Keogh, Bavuma, Levi, Rossington (W/K), Thurston, Arshad, Buck, Sanderson.

Derbyshire won the toss and elected to bat.

I was devastated to lose this toss as it looked a batsman's paradise. Although as the saying goes, "Tails never fails, expect for Derbyshire away when you especially need it not to fail"

There's not really much in the way of excitement to write about here. It finished in a draw, I could have told you that at the toss to be perfectly honest. Cobb got half centuries in both innings, Bavuma and Rossington are ????well in the runs at the moment as well.

It did get a bit dicey towards the end of day 4 when we lost a couple of quick wickets towards the end, but it was always going to be a draw. We look closer to the win than what we actually were as Bavuma hit 18 off the last over. Just one of those to take and move on. Somehow the road didn't produce a century!

Derbyshire: 349 (Critchley 90, Hosein 88 - Arshad 3-47, Cobb 2-52)

Northamptonshire: 424 (Rossington 94, Arshad 68* - van Beek 5-130, Palladino 3-137)

Derbyshire: 346-3 dec (Reece 95, Godleman 76 - Sanderson 2-87)

Northamptonshire: 243-7 (Bavuma 97*, Keogh 59 - Palladino 4-104)

Match drawn.

A break from County Championship cricket now as we tackle the blast - something I don't know if I'm looking forward to or not!
?????
????

[DaveRobbo]

Great win against Sussex! Woohoo!

So much for the new opening partnership though. Next game should be interesting.

Opening partnership is still an issue, I think Cobb was a short term fix as I much prefer him at 6 or 7!