White ensures there is no Dutch upset

The form book suggested that the Yorkshire Bank 40 encounter with Holland would result in a home win.
The Steelbacks celebrate the fall of a Holland wicket during their four-wicket victoryThe Steelbacks celebrate the fall of a Holland wicket during their four-wicket victory
The Steelbacks celebrate the fall of a Holland wicket during their four-wicket victory

Well it did, meaning Northamptonshire are still right in the shake-up for a semi-final place, but it was far from plain sailing.

As on Tuesday, the bowling did it’s job and Cameron White was again to the fore in the chase, but in truth the home side rather made a meal of the second course.

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Four down in no time, an upset was a very real possibility but a touch of antipodean experience, the type of which their international side are desperately lacking, surfaced to complete the task.

This is the Dutch’s final outing of the season in this competition and in front of a sparse attendance they batted like it.

When none of your line-up makes it as far as 30, on a slow but fairly blameless surface, then everything probably didn’t go as it could have as the final total indicated.

The innings was a succession of ill-judged shots, especially against spin, manic running and all with an end of term feel.

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Not that the home side will have been particularly bothered as it meant they weren’t stretched at all during their stint in the field.

Apart from Muhammad Azharullah, who was off-colour as he has been all week, the attack did a presentable job as they were met with little in the way of resistance.

At 86-2 in the 19th over, there was the promise of something far more substantial but Wes Barresi’s dismissal for a painful 18 ended those hopes.

Stephan Myburgh, the ball after hooking Steven Crook for six, and Michael Swart, swatting Andrew Hall straight to deep square-leg had already departed but Barresi and Ben Cooper had set a decent platform but the introduction of spin altered the course of proceedings.

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Barresi missed a sweep at James Middlebrook, Cooper did the same to Cameron White and Tim Gruijters lobbed a catch to mid-off from the same bowler.

That caused everything to slow up for a while leaving Mudassar Bukhari and Dom Michael, in a seventh wicket partnership of 56, to make the under par approach competitiveness.

But if the target appeared in clear view prior to the first ball being delivered, the frosted glass will have come down 45 minutes into the chase with the scoreboard showing 44-4.

And it was Bukhari who did the initial damage by getting rid of Alex Wakely and David Sales, hit in front and caught pulling respectively.

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This was quickly followed by Kyle Coetzer and Steven Crook who fell in the same Paul van Meekeren over, both caught behind in contrasting styles with the former driving and the latter fending off a short ball as the straightforward encountered a few potholes.

But while White, who would finish with an efficient undefeated 63, was standing firm then the hosts were still favourites and he found a willing ally in the shape of Middlebrook.

The pair, without doing anything untoward, motored along nicely and it rather unexpected when the Yorkshireman missed a slog-sweep.

By this stage, enough had been knocked off the target to dampen any panic and although Matt Spriegel barely troubled the scorers - the story of his year with bat in hand - the insurance of Hall at number eight saw them past the winning post