Steelbacks centurion Newton left to wonder what might have been

Newton's 107 had put the Steelbacks on course for victory at the County Ground, but it took 13 runs from the final over for the home side to salvage a share of the spoils.

Adam Rossington got them that point as he smashed an unbeaten 63 from 45 balls, with a bye from the final ball preventing Worcestershire from grabbing the win.

But Northants felt they should have been the ones celebrating a valuable victory after they had the away side in trouble during the first innings.

Steelbacks skipper Alex Wakely won the toss and Worcestershire were 118 for five and 199 for eight before making their way to 277 for nine.

And that proved just a little too far for Wakely's men, despite the heroics of Newton and Rossington.

“We feel we’ve outplayed them for 85 overs and a couple of patches have let us down in a big way," Newton said.

"We should have nailed them for 230 or 240 and looking back we probably didn’t mix up the bowling enough against the final partnership.

“We felt with 12 overs to go that was the time to nail the chase. I unfortunately got out, Alex (Wakely) went when he was just getting into his stride and that put us on the back foot.

"Adam played an unbelievable knock to almost get us over the line but we feel this is a game we should have won.”

The Steelbacks now sit eighth in the nine-team North Group, having failed to win any of their opening three matches.

But the picture is a lot brighter for second-placed Worcestershire, who have now won two and tied one so far.

“It’s been a really exciting enthralling game, and just a shame the weather prevented too many coming along," said Worcestershire director of cricket Steve Rhodes.

“We did really well to get the score we did, we thought we were a little above par and at one stage Northants should have won comfortably.

"But we kept going and managed to take something from the game to maintain our unbeaten record."