Ripley reflects on 'frustrating' defeat as Northants are beaten at Durham

David Ripley reflected on a frustrating Royal London One-Day Cup opener for his Northants Steelbacks side after they were beaten by 72 runs at Durham on Wednesday.
Northants head coach David RipleyNorthants head coach David Ripley
Northants head coach David Ripley

The County were unable to complete their chase, despite good efforts from Jason Holder, who smashed 86 from 68 balls, and skipper Alex Wakely, who made 66.

Once that promising partnership came to an end, Northants crumbled, eventually being bowled out for 270 in 43.5 overs.

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Durham had earlier racked up 342 for five after losing the toss, with skipper Cameron Bancroft blasting 151 and Michael Richardson making 102.

And Steelbacks head coach Ripley said: "I thought we played some good cricket, but I thought we were just a little bit down in all three areas.

"Getting them seven for two is a great start, but we didn't capitalise on that and we allowed Durham to keep ticking along a good rate.

"I think if we bowled a bit tighter or straighter that should have been harder given that we'd taken two wickets.

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"In the middle Bancroft and Richardson played very well, they ran very well.

"Our death bowling was steady.

"With the bat we felt that we were at 75 per cent, but we were still in a position to win.

"We had more runs than them after 20 overs and after 40 overs, but we lost by a considerable margin in the end.

"Three guys played very well for us, but the others couldn't get going.

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"It was a frustrating day because if we had played 15 per cent better we would have won."

Bancroft was delighted with Durham's effort as they got off to a winning start.

"It was nice," said the Australian bastman.

"We've had a couple of tough games in the Championship.

"Winning always creates a nice feeling in the dressing room.

"The guys have been working hard so it's nice to start this tournament really well and personally it was nice to get some runs.

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"Hopefully (I'm winning the crowd over). I'm just going out there to enjoy my cricket and to enjoy playing for Durham.

"Hopefully making some runs and if that's going to win them over, fantastic.

"We did some really good things in this game, hopefully we can continue them against Leicestershire on Friday.

"When you're playing at home you want to have an advantage.

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"It's quite a big oval so you need to run hard between the wickets and bowl to suit the conditions.

"I think we can make it a fortress for us.

"We had a lot of guys play their first games for us. A lot of inexperience and they certainly would have learned a lot."