Ripley acknowledges Steelbacks’ shortcomings

PAINFUL VIEWING - David Ripley watches his Steelbacks side struggle with the bat against Yorkshire Vikings at the County Ground (Pictures: Kirsty Edmonds)

The home side, a brutal innings of 76 from Richard Levi aside, were outclassed by the visitors who were well worth their victory and Ripley knows that there has to be more output from some of his charges.

He said: “I just think we’re not at our best. We’ve had a couple wins in tight games and it’s always good to win those.

“We’ve got some individuals playing well but as a collective we’re not quite there and haven’t quite got the formula right with the batting order.

Natwest T20 Blast Northants Steelbacks v Yorkshire Vikings. NNL-140613-214354009

“We’re not quite at the races in terms of where we were last year but Yorkshire played well.

“That was a good partnership between (Jonny) Bairstow and (Adam) Lyth that put a score on the board for them.

“It held in the wicket a little bit and I think a par score was 170 or 165 so I thought they were a little bit over and they ran very well.

“With Richard Levi scoring 76 off 47 balls we should’ve given him more support.

Natwest T20 Blast Northants Steelbacks v Yorkshire Vikings. NNL-140613-214344006

“It was a really good innings from Richard but we couldn’t get him on strike and then we got him a bit of support at the end but we were left with a bit of a mountain to climb.”

As to where the solution lies, Ripley thinks that a reshuffle may be in order for next week’s double header which sees the Steelbacks travel to Edgbaston on Thursday and Old Trafford 24 hours later.

He added: “I think we’ve got to tinker a little bit.

“We did stick with people last year and I’m not someone who will chop and change too much but we definitely need something to work for us in the middle order.”