The Peterborough Evening Telegraph
Clarke ready for the best Northants T20 Finals of all time
Peterborough Town skipper David Clarke can’t wait to take part in the best quality Northants Twenty/20 Cup Finals Day of all-time.
Remarkably the top four in the Northants Premier Division have all made it to the Northants County Ground on Sunday (July 23, 10.30am start).
Clarke certainly has no preference on who Town receive in a draw which takes place 30 minutes before the opening semi-final.
Rushton, Old Northamptonians and Finedon are all full of high-class performers as are Town despite the absence of professional all-rounder Paul McMahon who is on ICC duty at the Women’s’ World Cup Final at Lord’s.
“It’s the best Finals Day line-up I can remember,” Clarke stated. “Usually a couple of the top sides meet before the semi-finals.
“But these are the four best teams in the Premuer Division. The draw is largely irrelevant because you are going to have to beat two tough teams to lift the trophy.
“It’s obviously disappointing to be without McMahon, but we fancy our chances as long as we all play to our best.
“Asim Butt has a fantastic record at the County Ground and the surroundings won’t be new to most of our team.”
Town are also disappointed Twenty/20 specialist bowler Richard Kendall isn’t available. They have added youngsters Mohammed Saif and Connor Parnell to their squad, while top batsman Alex Mitchell is flying home early from a stag weekend to play.
Town’s T/20 form has improved this season as shown by a five-wicket win in a high quality Jaidka Cup Final win over Bourne at Bretton Gate.
Clarke won the man-ofthe-match honours with an unbeaten 53 as Town chased down Bourne’s 145-6 with nine balls to spare.
“It’s great to win my first trophy as captain,” Clarke added. “Bourne fielded a full strength side and they are an outstanding T20 side so to beat them was a great effort.
“We haven’t been to the Northants Finals Day since 2014, but we ended up reaching the national semi-finals so we know how good we can be.” 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13 13
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L2 306 3 300 4 272 5 272 5 266 6 250 7 249 6 225 7 217 8 208 8 184 11 55 Ramsey II Eaton Socon II Orton Park Waresley II Bharat Sports Buckden Barnack
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