Northants fail to make the most of 'key moments' as head coach Ripley ponders another Trophy defeat

Chasing 263 to win the Bob Willis Trophy match, yet another damaging batting collapse saw the County slump from 48 without loss to 94 for six, and they never recovered despite some spirited batting from Adam Rossington and Nathan Buck.

Northants were eventually bowled out for a disappointing 184, and the innings followed a similar pattern to the first innings here where the County found themselves 100 for seven, and also the second innings against Somerset last week when Ripley's side capsized from 104 for three to 154 all out.

Throw in the 67 all out in the first innings of that defeat against Somerset, and it's pretty clear that as a batting unit, things aren't quite working for Northants at the moment.

Reflecting on the loss to Worcestershire, Ripley said: "It was a bit like the Somerset game where we looked good for periods and were punching for a result.

"But ultimately at those key moments we lost clusters of wickets, and the spell this morning they negated us (Worcester declared on 255 for six) and they played well."

The visitors' innings was built around a patient 110 not out from Tom Fell, who grafted away for 208 balls for that score, and Ripley felt that sort of anchor was what was missing from the Northants reply.

"Tom Fell showed there was another way of scoring runs," said the County head coach.

"We saw aggression was effective in what Riki Wessels did when the ball was doing a bit, but Fell played an authentic innings where he batted through and faced 200 balls and that was the difference.

"We started really well with the bat, and the guys went out and defended well and took their opportunities to score.

"At that point at 40-odd for none we thought we were well in the game, but at another crossroads we’ve got lost in a bunch of wickets when we needed somebody to stick in there."

Worcestershire coach Alex Gidman was delighted with a win that saw his team go to the top of the Central group, with Somerset being held to a draw by Warwickshire.

“It was a good game and both teams tried really hard in testing conditions," he said. "Both teams acquitted themselves well.

"We thought it was going to be a tight game and the difference was always going to be a couple of outstanding performances and thankfully we had those.

“We felt this morning it got quite hard to score when the ball got soft, so we had to bat sensibly and anything over 220 we thought we had a good chance."

For their part, Northants remain rock bottom of the Central group of the Bob Willis Trophy, with just 17 points from their three games to date.

They continue their four-day campaign this Saturday when they host Glamorgan at the County Ground, before attention switches to the Vitality T20 Blast next Thursday (August 27).