Ripley frustrated after Northants draw at Leicestershire

David Ripley admits Northants have been inconsistent (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The County claimed their third draw in four County Championship Division Two matches as this week’s clash with Leicestershire ended in a draw on Wednesday.

Leicestershire had dominated the first day at Grace Road, but Northants fought back and made their hosts rue the failure to enforce the follow-on.

The weather eventually brought an end to the encounter and Ripley was left to reflect on a mixed beginning to the current campaign.

“We’ve lost quite a lot of cricket over the course of the games we’ve played,” Ripley said.

“It’s a bit frustrating and we haven’t really felt the season’s got into swing. It’s very frustrating.

“We’ve been a bit hot and cold but in our two home games we’ve had the upper hand in terms of the points and the scoreboard.

“But our two away games we’ve been a bit on the back foot, losing at Essex and then in this week’s game we could have followed on, and they may have wish they’d taken that opton.

“We were behind in the first innings and we fought hard to pull it back.

“We’re just not as consistent as we’d like to be, but we’ve had two very decent home performances.

Leicestershire finished the first day on 311 for five, but Northants recovered to dismiss their opponents for 332.

Ripley’s side were then bowled out for just 151 before Leicestershire got to 132 for six.

After rain wiped out day three, the home side declared and had Northants 30 for one before the encounter reached its conclusion.

And Ripley said: “On day two, we took 11 wickets for 150 so it was a top effort, but we’ve had an honest discussion about our performance on the first evening and we’re disappointed with that.

“We didn’t get enough balls on the stumps and we conceded extras on the back of that. It was a very high tally of extras.

“We didn’t do ourselves justice, but we fought back well with the ball.

“In between that, we were a bit mixed with the bat and 150 all out was somewhere shy of where we needed to be.

“We’ve just not quite hit our straps.

“We’ve had good sessions and good days, but putting together a whole performance is something we’re striving for and we haven’t quite got there yet.”