The Northants turnaround

It was a cloudy evening in central Northampton. The back of Somerset's run chase of a modest 116 has been well and truly broken by Richard Levi and Craig Kieswetter and Jos Buttler and James Hildreth simply take the sting out of the attack to see Somerset home. It was one of 7 defeats for Northants in the 2012 Friends Life t20 group stage. In fact, the Steelbacks won 4 games in all forms of cricket in 2012. This year, things seemed different. It started in the County Championship and YB40 as they more than doubled their wins tally from 2012 by the end of June. So when I made my first visit of the year to Wantage Road to see Northants take on Warwickshire in their second home game of their t20 campaign, in the sun I might add, there was a sense of positivity around the ground.

Northants chose to bat first and all four required batsman scored at over a run a ball. Kyle Coetzer carried his bat. Richard Levi, who as mentioned earlier played for Somerset against Northants last year, also played a useful knock as the Steelbacks racked up 161 off their 20 overs. Over to the bowlers. Mohammad Azharullah was excpetional taking 4-25 and rightly being named man of the match. It was a fantastic all round performance and in complete contrast to 2012.

The Warwickshire game

I returned to Wantage Road a few weeks later for the Somerset game. A brilliant innings from Steven Crook saw Northants to 150-8. It turned out to be enough as Mohammad Azharullah was again in the wickets taking 3-16 from his 4 overs.

Somerset under lights

After several impressive performances in the group stage, Northants are in the Friends Life t20 quarter finals. I'll be there for the Durham game on Tuesday. Northants are the surprise package in the England domestic game this year. I hope people write us off. I hope we continue to surprise teams. What a turnaround in just over twelve months if we get to Finals day...