Good signs bear fruit for Ripley in Cheltenham

Despite defeats in their final two Natwest t20 Blast outings, Northamptonshire head coach Ripley thinks elements of his side’s performances were carried into the four-wicket success at Cheltenham College.

He said: “There were some good signs at Durham, I thought we were good for 30 overs out of the 40 and bar a 10-run swing at either end of the powerplay against Notts we could’ve won that game.

“So there have been some better signs which we’ve talked about and been very positive about coming into this competition.

“We wanted to start well, this is a great start for us and we can look forward to Tuesday (against Worcestershire) and hopefully look back on a two from two start which would put us in a strong position.”

And Ripley had words of praise for his bowlers who laid the foundations for the triumph after Kyle Coetzer had won the toss and elected to put the home side in.

“Everyone contributed well, we were pretty good up front and the spinners did a good job in the middle,” Ripley continued.

“We picked up wickets at very important times and every time they looked like getting some momentum going we got a wicket and they had to regroup a little bit.

“The death bowling was good and obviously it helps when we’re bowling at guys down the order a little bit rather than someone on 70 or 80.”

While it was a solid team effort, Ripley reserved a comment for loan man Adam Rossington who, yet again, showed what he is capable of as his innings of 82 turned the chase into a straightforward one.

Ripley said:“He scores runs all round the ground.

“He’s a really good player who I first saw when he was 16 and I’m really pleased that we were able to get him along.

“He’s not had a great season and just a bit of a fresh start and the confidence from being in form means we’ve got the best out of him.”