Northamptonshire LV Championship Div 1 Win 20 points

 

Day 3

NOTTS DESTROY NORTHANTS

Notts won by an innings and 25 runs just before tea at Wantage Road today as they beat a poor Northants team who were bowled out for 72 after a superb new ball performance from Dane Paterson knocked the stuffing out of the home side taking four wickets in his first four overs as Northants slumped to 11 for 4. A position they never recovered from.

On another cold and cloudy day in front of a sparse crowd, batting was hazardous occupation all day with plenty of movement in the air and off the pitch. The outfield remained extremely slow.

Taylor (Pavilion End) and White opened the bowling. In the 52nd over, James on 26 was caught by Vasconcelos at slip off a no ball bowled by Taylor, but the bowler had the last laugh as off the seventh delivery of the over, James without addition to his score was once again caught by Vasconcelos, 183 for 5. Mullaney was out the following over leg before for a duck without playing a shot against White, 184 for 6. White with an action similar to Mike Hendrick, although the figures don’t back it up had been the best Northants bowler throughout the contest.

A leg glance for four by Clarke off White saw to his 50 off 137 balls. The Notts 200 came up in the 59th over. Berg and Buckingham came on as first change and bowled very ordinarily, bowling far too wide at Clarke and Patterson-White as the pair added 58 for the 7th wicket. Sales came on for the 70th over and quickly took three wickets. With his fifth delivery he removed Patterson-White (15) caught once more by Vasconcelos at first slip. A poor shot by Patterson-White chasing a wide one without moving his feet, 242 for 7. Clarke (76 off 179 balls, 10x4) threw his wicket away caught low down at third man by Buckingham off Sales 249 for 8 in the 72nd over. Clarke had made the highest score of the game and for the second time in a week had curbed his natural attacking instincts and played a mature and valuable innings for his team.

Fletcher came in with Hameed as his runner and his single to third man off Sales saw Notts to their solitary batting point. Hutton was comprehensively bowled by Sales for 3, 254 for 9 in the 74th over. Paterson was bowled by Taylor for a duck. Notts 255 all out off 74.3 overs, Sales 4 for 24 and Taylor 4 for 59. Notts led by 97 runs on first innings which seemed a large one given the quality of pitch and of the opposition. Lunch was taken between the innings.

Hutton (Lynn Wilson End) and Paterson shared the new ball. With his fifth ball Paterson had Vasconcelos (1) caught by Hutton low down at first slip, 1 for 1. In his next over Paterson had Gay (0) caught at third slip by substitute Harrison, a simple catch 2 for 2. In his 4th over, Paterson picked up his third wicket having Whiteman (8) caught by Clarke diving to his left, 11 for 3. Two balls Keogh (0) was expertly caught by sub Harrison going to his right. Northants 11 for 4 and staring down the barrel. All four wickets to the rampant Paterson.

Mullaney replaced Hutton for the 15th over. Paterson after a magnificent opening spell of 8-4-8-4 was replaced by James. Zaib (26) chipped James to Slater at extra cover who took a diving catch low down tohis right, 46 for 5 in the 20th over. A poor shot. Sales (6) was smartly caught by Clarke standing up to Mullaney, 48 for 6 in the 23rd over. Hutton returned for the 27th over and Gouldstone (6) going for an expansive drive was caught by Hameed at point, 59 for 7 in the 27th over. Paterson returned for the following over and Berg became the eighth wicket to fall caught by Hutton at first slip who caught the ricochet from second slip Duckett. Berg reaching for the ball, not moving his feet, the fifth wicket for Paterson, 64 for 8 in the 28th over. Buckingham (2) was the next man to fall as bowler Hutton deflected Taylor s straight drive on to the non-strikers stumps, 66 for 9 in the 29th over. Ten balls later at 15:58, Hutton delivered the coup de grace, Taylor aiming for a cow corner only succeeded in getting an edge through to keeper Clarke. Northants 72 all out off 30.1 overs. A feeble effort throughout the contest from the home batters, Notts bowling far too good for a team missing the experienced trio of Sanderson, Procter and McManus. Paterson (5-26) proved unplayable all afternoon and was backed up by Hutton (2-19), James (1-13) and Mullaney. All this without the injured Fletcher. Notts currently lie third in the table and Essex await at Trent Bridge on Thursday.

Sadly, due to the lopsided nature of Championship Division One we have no return fixture against Northants to look forward to. What a load of cobblers! MAG

Day 2

NOTTS IN THE ASCENDANCY, AS HUTTON GOES NAP AGAIN

Notts trail by one run after another rain affected day at Northampton where 21 overs were lost. On a cool, dank and breezy day Northants collapsed from 113 for 2 to 130 for 9 before rallying slightly to 158. Notts without Luke Fletcher who had a recurrence of his ankle injury bowled well throughout the morning session on a pitch offering much lateral movement and with a very slow outfield. Leading the way once more was Brett Hutton who had figures of 5 for 37. Duckett and Hameed got Notts to a quick start adding 58 for the first wicket, but they both fell in the same Tom Taylor over as Notts lost three wickets in 11 balls. Montgomery and Clarke added 68 for the 4th wicket before Montgomery fell to Sales. Notts closing on 157 for 4.

Play got under way on time in front of another sparse crowd with Paterson (Lynn Wilson End) and Hutton opened the bowling. In the 39th over, James replaced Hutton from the Pavilion End and bowled impressively without much luck. With a single, Zaib got Northants to 100. Vasconcelos got to his 50 off 140 balls with a legside four off Paterson, aided by a misfield by substitute Martindale just as the floodlights came on. In the 45th over, James had Zaib (35) caught by Duckett at second slip, 113 for 3. This was start of a collapse that saw the home side lose 7 wickets for 17. In the following over, Hutton replaced Paterson and with his third delivery he had Keogh out for a two ball duck caught by Clarke, 114 for 4. In the 51st over Mullaney replaced James from the Pavilion End. In an eventful first over, Vasconcelos on 57 was dropped by Patterson-White in the covers, a difficult chance. Mullaney then trapped Sales (1) leg before to a delivery that kept low, 125 for 5. Gouldstone was dismissed for a 4 ball duck in the following over caught by Duckett at 2nd slip off Hutton, 126 for 6 in the 52nd over. Taylor became Duckett's second catch of the innings off Hutton (third catch of the innings) for a nine ball duck,128 for 7 in the 54th over . Vasconcelos (62) was finally dismissed at the fourth time of asking via a catch by James at first slip off Hutton, 129 for 8 in the 56th over. In the next over, Paterson replaced James and with the third ball of a new spell had Buckingham leg before for a 3 ball duck, 130 for 9. The game had swung dramatically. Rain stopped play at 1300 with Northants 137 for 9 off 58.5 overs with Berg on 7 and White on 1.

Play recommenced at 1445 with 17 overs taken off the days ration. Paterson and Hutton remained on. Berg hit Hutton for six over square leg and then a four as the South African took Northants to 150 in the 63rd over. After the tenth wicket pair had added 28, Hutton bowled Berg for 23. Northants 158 all out, White 6 not out. Hutton took his first-class wicket tally up to 23 with figures 5 for 37 but Notts had bowled in helpful conditions against a weak batting line up.

White (Lynn Wilson End) and Berg were the Northants opening bowlers as Notts had 49 overs to bat. Berg proved expensive, his opening three overs going for 26, including six boundaries, five for Duckett for one for Hameed. Aussie right arm seamer Jordan Buckingham replaced Berg. Duckett on 26 had a life when Gay missed him at slip off White. Notts reached their 50 in the 9th over.

Tom Taylor came on for the 14th over and changed Northants fortunes. He had Duckett (39) leg before with his second ball, 58 for 1 and off his sixth delivery had Hameed (19) caught by Vasconcelos by his ankles at first slip, 63 fo 2. Buckingham switched ends for the following over and with the last ball of the over, Slater (5) was caught at first slip by Vasconcelos, 67 for 3. Notts 87 for 3 off 20 overs with Montgomery on 6 and Clarke on 2.

White bowled a good spell after tea, Clarke in particular riding his luck. In the 28th over, Berg replaced Taylor from the Pavilion End. With the sun finally coming out Buckingham returned for the 33rd over. Sales was introduced for the 34th over and went for 11 in his opening over but he removed Montgomery (34) in his second over, caught behind by keeper Gouldstone , 135 for 4 in the 36th over. Taylor replaced Sales for the 40th over. James was dropped on 1 by Taylor at third slip, off Buckingham, a sharp chance. The Notts surpassed 150 in the 44th over. With four overs remaining bad light stopped play with Notts on 157 for 4 off 45 overs with Clarke on 41 and James on 7. The home attack lacked depth and had clearly missed kingpin Ben Sanderson. With the wicket clearly still helping the seam bowlers, Notts will looking for a lead of 100 or so tomorrow morning. MAG

Day 1

RAIN RUINED DAY

Torrential rain straight after lunch meant it was another truncated championship day with only 31 overs bowled at Northampton. 

Notts won the toss and inserted Northants with Patterson-White and Paterson replacing Broad and Stone.

Fletcher (Pavilion End) and Hutton opened the bowling in sunny conditions. In the ninth over, Gay (15) reached out to a delivery from Fletcher and was caught behind by Clarke,  21 for 1. Paterson and James came on for the 12th and 13th overs respectively. Vasconcelos was dropped on 1 an easy chance to Hutton at first slip off James. A well pitched up delivery from Paterson beat Whiteman's defences and bowled him for 8, 36 for 2 in the 16th over. Vasconcelos and Zaib then added an unbeaten 50 in 92 balls. Vasconcelos on 19 was dropped once more this time off Paterson,  Clarke missing an easy effort moving to his right. Fletcher replaced James from the Pavilion End in the 25th over. Three overs later, Patterson-White came on to bowl. There was a couple of mix ups between the batting pair as two possible run outs were missed by Notts in the field. Northants got to lunch on 86 for 2 after 31 overs with Vasconcelos on 39 and Zaib on 20. Not a particularly memorable session although Notts will be ruing two very easy chances missed in the field.

The sky darkened over lunch and very light rain started to fall at 1335, ten minutes later the heavens opened and heavy rain fell for an hour with puddles forming on the outfield. Play was called off for the day at 1510. The forecast tomorrow suggests a cool dank day with afternoon showers. MAG

No Jake Ball again and they take Tom Loten, Ben Martindale and Liam Patterson-White away from the seconds team playing at Lady Bay, to complete a 13 man squad.

Hasseb Hameed
Ben Duckett
Ben Slater
Matt Montgomery
Joe Clarke
Lyndon James
Steven Mullaney
Liam Patterson-White
Brett Hutton

Luke Fletcher
Tom Loten
Ben Martindale
Dane Paterson

What will it be in this game, 5 points has great value and must be fought for, or 5 points is nothing and not worth having and can be gifted away?

In interview, Joe Clarke inferred that Notts would, as near as, be expecting to win against Northamptonshire -a dangerous approach, I would suggest as we only have two batsmen that have scored innings of note over the four matches so far. If they go all out to manufacture a result in this one?

The barmy four specialist right arm seamer approach reaped little reward other than the three bonus points in the Lancashire game, and they never had Lancashire under sustained pressure. But, we know for sure that we've lost one of those four to injury and talk at the weekend reckoned that the other England player wouldn't be made available at Wantage Road either. So, perhaps Mr Moores will return to a more balanced attack in this round, perhaps he has little choice.

As there is no one in the Seconds knocking, even tentatively, on the door of the first team, the squad can only comprise of:

Hasseb Hameed
Ben Duckett
Ben Slater
Matt Montgomery
Joe Clarke
Lyndon James
Steven Mullaney
Liam Patterson-White
Brett Hutton
Luke Fletcher
Dane Paterson
Jake Ball

Will Jake have a turn this week? You have to assume Tom Moores remains sidelined and that Dane Schadendorf isn't on the head coach's radar.