Northants start title defence with crushing victory over Worcester

Northamptonshire VI.XI.NS got their BBS league title defence off to the perfect start as they defeated Worcestershire Royals by 232 runs at New College Worcester to extend their winning run to 7 consecutive league games.

Worcester were without Sam Murray, James Walton and Luke Almond who are three of the teams top players. Northants gave debuts to new player Stan Nix and former Metro player Brad Fisher as they had several key partially sighted batsmen unavailable.

Northants won the toss and chose to bat first in good batting conditions with the weather not too hot and virtually no breeze. Stan Nix and David Gavrilovic opened the batting for VI.XI.NS and both were run out with the score on 64. Nix looked promising on his debut where as Gavrilovic looked solid but unspectacular.

Alastair Provan and Brad Fisher then took control of the game sharing the club’s highest ever partnership of 153 before Fisher was bowled by Nana Frempong for 64, his first ever half century. Kev Pamphilon then fell for 0 as Frempong's second victim and Simon Hill ended up 2 not out as the innings was declared when Alastair Provan reached his second career century finishing 100 not out after a chanceless innings.

Worcester then had 35 overs to chase Northants 266/4 to gain an unlikely victory. Worcester's reply started in the worst possible fashion as Tom Milson was caught close in by Elliot Stonhill off the bowling of Jagdisch Pata from the final ball of the 1st over. This was Stonhill's first ever catch despite playing since 1996 and playing in more than 50 matches and it was also Pata's first ever wicket.

Worcester then suffered a hat-trick of run outs, all three were tight runs but were mainly due to excellent fielding from Ian Goodearl and Dave Keeling. Both players threw from distance for the bowler to knock down the stumps, and the third run out was a direct hit from about 15 yards by Pata.

With the Worcester innings in trouble Robin Williams was hoping to re-build and stay in for a while but in the 6th over Ian Goodearl bowled Williams and picked up a second wicket as he also clean bowled Chris Norman.

At this stage no Worcester batsman had scored a run off the bat and this trend continued as VI.XI.NS captain Dave Gavrilovic claimed the wicket of Al-Hussain Al-Keraim due to Mahomed Khatri getting down low to take his first ever catch. Nicole Lindsay finally broke the team’s duck off the bat, hitting a Gavrilovic delivery over the keepers head for 4 before falling to the Northants skipper LBW next ball.

Gavrilovic then picked up the final two wickets when Adam Ferguson was brilliantly caught low down for 1 by wicketkeeper Brad Fisher before Worcester's top scorer Nana Frempong fell three balls later bowled for 7.

So Northants now go on to face Yorkshire on May 20th to try and extend their winning run in the league and will come up against former player and now Yorkshire captain Shah Miah. Worcester travel to Birmingham on May 5th and will be looking to get their season back on track.

VIXINS Man of the Match: Alastair Provan

Northamptonshire VIXINS team: Stan Nix; David Gavrilovic; Bradley Fisher; Alastair Provan; Kev Pamphilon; Simon Hill; Mohomed Khatri; Jagdisch Pata; David Keeling; Ian Goodearl; Elliot Stonhill.

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