Jacques Banton produced a fine all-round performance for Worcestershire Seconds in a high-scoring SET20 encounter with Northamptonshire at the County Ground, Northampton.
Banton returned figures of 4-0-17-2, an excellent effort in a formidable Northamptonshire total of 212-8.
He then hit 61 off 35 balls with two sixes and five fours but Worcestershire went down by eight runs after totalling 204-4.
Banton and Ben Gibbon had shared the new ball after Northamptonshire opted to bat and each picked up an early wicket in reducing the home side to 11-2.
But after that consistent batting enabled Northamptonshire to post a large total.
Luke Procter top-scored with an unbeaten 64 and Kashif Ali, who has recently been on trial for Worcestershire, made 33 from 19 deliveries.
Adam Finch, 4-0-31-2, and Taylor Cornall, 4-0-33-1 returned highly respectable figures while Gibbon ended with three wickets but at a cost of 63 runs.
Worcestershire openers Cornall (22) and Tom Fell (37) put on 55 and Oli Cox made 17 off just six balls with two sixes.
Banton and Henry Cullen put on 64 for the fourth wicket to keep the Seconds in the hunt.
Cullen went onto make an unbeaten 39 from 23 balls after Banton’s dismissal. Fourteen were needed for victory off the final over but Jack White conceded only five runs.
The Seconds had also been beaten, this time by 26 runs, in the opening game of the day.
Banton again returned his side’s best figures of 4-0-20-1 as Northamptonshire totalled 171-5.
Finch, 4-0-28-1, Mitchell Stanley, 4-0-35-1, and Gibbon, 4-0-36-1, were the other wicket-takers while a direct hit by Reeve Evitts from backward square leg ran out Kashif for 34.
Worcestershire lost three wickets in the powerplay before Cox, 40 off 36 balls with six fours, and Cullen, 28 off 23 deliveries, added 62 in 6.4 overs for the fourth wicket.
Despite a late burst of hitting from Stanley of 26 not out from 17 balls, Worcestershire closed on 145-8.
