Ripley remaining upbeat after Steelbacks’ defeat at Trent Bridge

David Ripley took plenty of positives away from Trent Bridge, despite Northants Steelbacks’ seven-wicket defeat to Notts Outlaws.
David Ripley (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)David Ripley (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
David Ripley (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The Steelbacks put themselves in a good position at 173 for five, with Josh Cobb smashing a superb 84 from 56 balls.

But they couldn’t defend the total as Samit Patel and James Taylor put together a partnership of 95 runs from 52 deliveries to see the Outlaws home.

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Nevertheless, the Steelbacks stay in fourth place in the NatWest T20 Blast North Group, and Ripley remains upbeat.

“I thought we played pretty well,” said the head coach. “We were well in the game for a 40-over contest.

“It ebbed and flowed a little bit, it was pretty nip and tuck for the majority of it, but that partnership at the end pushed the game their way.

“That meant we came down on the wrong side, but there are a lot of positives from the game.”

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Notts are now just a point behind the Steelbacks, having claimed their fourth win of the competition.

Northants have never beaten the Outlaws in this form of the game, failing to win any of their six meetings, and Ripley knows Notts are a tough nut to crack.

He said: “They’re not in the position in the league where they’d like to be, but they’ve got a lot of international players, some excellent management and coaches.

“They’ll be working hard to get up the table and if they get on a roll, they’re not going to be a team people look forward to playing.

“I thought we played pretty well and for the majority of the 40 overs we were in a good position, but they just wrestled it away at the end.”