Ripley left to rue first-innings woe as Northants are beaten by Warwickshire

David Ripley saw his side defeated by Warwickshire (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

The County lost by an innings and 48 runs, despite having won the toss.

They opted to bat on the first day, but were dismissed for just 147, giving Warwickshire the chance to seize control.

And that was exactly what they did as the away side racked up 413 all out before bowling Northants out again, for 218, to secure a sizeable victory.

It was the County's second defeat in as many matches, following the 160-run defeat to Middlesex in the County Championship Division Two opener at Lord's.

And Ripley said: “At Lord’s I felt it was much tighter than the scores suggested, but here we’ve been well beaten.

"Our first innings batting was where the damage was done. It was a good toss to win and to come out with only 147 was where the game was lost.

“It was difficult to score on that pitch but to get knocked over is another thing.

"The Lord’s game we were properly bowled out but back here it was the old Northants Achilles heel of giving too many wickets away that we could have done more about.

"We fought pretty hard in the second innings, it was difficult, there was a bit of variable bounce.

"Today, we’ve batted for 90 overs and if we had batted the same time in the first innings we would have been well in the game.”