Favourites Notts pressed all the method

Nottinghamshire 80 for 5 ( Kleinveldt 4-34) path Northants 194 ( Kleinveldt 43, Wood 4-52) by 114 runs

Three days from the autumnal equinox and the thick early earlymorning mist settled on Northampton like a caring feline coiled around a committed owner. The mist had raised by the time play started at Wantage Road however Chris Read’s choice to bowl veryfirst will certainly haveactually been one of his mostconvenient in 2 years as a first-rate cricketer.

By teatime just the length of the shadows and the mild browning of the leaves recommended the month however Nottinghamshire’s bowlers had finished their work by then, dismissing Northamptonshire for 194 in a videogame the home side needto win to sustain their opportunities of promo. Welcome to September, when the mellow days deal a curious counterpoint to the season’s late hurrahs and a summerseason’s work can be lost in the faults and mischances of a black hour.

And, yes, it was simply such an error-littered last session, which lay in wait for Nottinghamshire’s batsmen. Four of them were dismissed by Rory Kleinveldt, who had earlier batted with straightforward excellent sense to make 43 off 63 balls. Now, Kleinveldt pitched the ball up in the complete understanding that he might be driven and discovered that his guts was warranted. Steven Mullaney lost his off stump when playing down the incorrect line, Cheteshwar Pujara prodded forward uncertainly at his 3rd ball however just offered a catch to Richard Levi at 2nd slip and Jake Libby was leg before on the back foot having fought for over an hour to make simply 13.

Kleinveldt even had the energy to return and capitalise on Riki Wessels’s mind-fade 10 balls before the close when the batsman who generally ratings runs for a pastime versus Northants wafted nervously at a ball exterior the off stump however just nicked a catch to a thrilled David Murphy. Given that another Trent Bridge talisman, Samit Patel, was currently back in the structure havingactually been caught in front by Nathan Buck, the pleasure at Wantage Road required little picturing. If Northants can prepare a success here, it will be a three-horse sprint in the last week of the season. The videogames at Worcester, Hove and Leicester will endupbeing hot tickets, warm anyhow.

And yet it will still take something rather magnificent to reject Nottinghamshire now. As their bowlers made early inroads on the veryfirst earlymorning, one’s mind went back to last September when Read’s gamers produced some of the worst cricket of their professions and were relegated by 31 points. Proud males were hurt by that and this season hasactually been, amongst other things, an effort to expiate the stain on the home by the Trent. Two one-day prizes haveactually been won and if Nottinghamshire can include a divisional title to