Northants and Ben ending on high note

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE’S players may have mixed feelings to the season coming to an end after they maintained their excellent recent form with victory in their final match against Gloucestershire at Wantage Road.

While Northants’ small squad has been stretched to the limit, some of their number have ended the campaign in outstanding nick, especially Ben Sanderson’s whose 8-73 yesterday led them home.

It’s also a pity for them that this didn’t happen sooner in the Championship, as their late run has only lifted them mid-table.

But it’s a year that Ben Duckett will never forget as he ended the season with an exceptional 1,338 runs in the Championship at an average of 60.81. Rob Newton’s 2016 has been a bit more of a slow burner, but his 130 in Northants’ first innings followed up his maiden double-century against Leicestershire last month.

Sanderson passed the his 50th first-class wicket mark in this match while no spinner has taken more wickets in this division than Rob Keogh. Northants’ season has, of course, been more notable with the white ball, after they claimed their second T20 title in four years by defeating Durham.

Captain Alex Wakely, a centurion here, said:“Momentum is a big thing.To be in a quarter final of the 50-over competition, win the T20 and finish so high up in the table as we could, we can say we’ve had a bloody good season.”

Gloucestershire’s season continues and they’ll be glad because they never really got going here.

Paceman David Payne impressed with eight wickets in the match as well as crashing 56 off 65 balls in the visitors’ first innings and George Hankins, just 19, defied Sanderson with a ton.

Head coach Richard Dawson said: “We did well in patches, but this sums up our last few weeks. There’s frustration because we picked up wickets then gave them the impetus back.

“We’ve played some good cricket at times, but it’s about putting it all together session by session and we haven’t managed that.”