Worcestershire’s spin duo Fateh Singh and Tom Hinley hastened that their side must move on quickly after they were blown away by a sensational spell from Northants Steelbacks bowler, Ben Sanderson, that inflicted a first home T20 defeat of the season on Worcestershire Rapids.
After getting out of the blocks quickly, Northants batters David Willey and Ricardo Vasconcelos added 72 for the second-wicket to put their side in the driving seat early on.
Hinley, said that he thought his side did well in hindsight to keep the visitors under 200, after it looked at one stage as they may motor past that figure.
“They obviously got off to a pretty good start, and we were sort of trying to fight throughout the innings, but I think we did a decent job keeping them to one ninety.
“At one point they looked like they could get over 200 so I think we weren’t too disappointed with the score. We thought we backed ourselves to chase it, but regular wickets didn’t help us.”
Hinley, bowled economically during his two-overs, grabbing a wicket in the process, as he and Singh put the skids under Northants in the middle overs.
It was Singh, however, who continued to catch the eye, as his economical spell of 1-16, was the stand-out bowling performance for the hosts on the day.
The difference in his approach to the shortened format has not gone unnoticed either, as the focus he says, has shifted from wicket-taking, to becoming as hard to score against as possible.
“I think in a red ball game, you’re always looking to take a wicket some way or another, in this format of the game, I just think I’d like try and not go for a run and then almost bowl in tandem with a partner.
“They can take the wickets, if I can keep it economical, batters are more likely to take a risk somewhere else.”
Hinley, said the pitch aided the slower bowlers in Rapids colours, as the recent dry spell followed up by some rain before the match he believed, worked in their favour when the run-rate of Northants has started to exceed 10 an over.
“With the rain, it sort of skidded on a little bit. That made it a bit tougher, I think, for us, as well as the seamers getting cutters helped.
“It’s our job to try and control the middle as best we can, and we have got three good spinners, me, Fats and Dolly. We’ve got lots of options, and it’s probably quite nice for Dolly to be able to chop and change.”
Ben Sanderson however, stole the headlines, as he single handedly inspired his side to a comfortable win in the end.
His quite incredible spell of 6-8, included a hat-trick, as he dismantled the hosts batting line-up – and the Rapid’s spinners were quick to praise how well organised the Steelbacks team were throughout.
“They are a good unit. They’ve got a good side, lots of big players in that team. I think they’re just clicking at the moment and gelling together. They’ve got a lot of power in their batting order.
“So they’ve got a quite well balanced side, and I think that helps them, he (Sanderson) has bowled really well there, he is full of experience and knows what he is doing.”
