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Mother's illness sends Gayle home

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Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, has flown home to Jamaica to be with his seriously ill mother

Peter English17-Nov-2009Chris Gayle, the West Indies captain, has flown home to Jamaica to be with his seriously ill mother, leaving him in doubt for next week’s first Test. Gayle departed Allan Border Field before the start of the tour game against Queensland to begin the journey back to visit her in hospital in Kingston.Team-mate Ramnaresh Sarwan said it was disappointing to lose Gayle and the squad would have to wait to learn whether he will be able to turn out at the Gabba. “He’s got something very important to go back to, his mum is not well,” Sarwan said. “We’re hoping for him to come back for the first Test, if not the second. We’ll have to wait and see what happens.”Gayle’s absence means Denesh Ramdin, the wicketkeeper, is leading the side in the four-day tour match in Brisbane. The 15-man squad is already short of experience and will rely on Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Sarwan to lift it in the lead-up to the Test on November 26.”The thoughts of the management and players in the team as well as the WICB are with Chris and his family at this time,” Joel Garner, the team manager, said. “We also want to wish his mother a speedy recovery.”While the squad hopes Gayle will return quickly, the move is a further blow to the tourists, who have come together following a strike between the players and the West Indies Cricket Board. Gayle, who has played 82 Tests, has also been criticised for his attitude since being re-appointed captain following the player strike. When the team arrived last week he spoke of unifying the side and challenging Australia in the three-game series.

Urgent Kallis turns to oxygen aid

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Allrounder using an oxygen chamber to try and speed his recovery from the fractured rib that has threatened his participation in the opening Test

Andrew McGlashan in East London10-Dec-2009Jacques Kallis is using an oxygen chamber to try and speed his recovery from the fractured rib that has threatened his participation in the opening Test against England at Centurion Park.Kallis suffered the injury during the Champions League Twenty20 in October and was ruled out of the recent one-day series. It is a race against time to get him fit for the opening five-day encounter, with some suggestions that he may struggle to make the starting XI in any capacity or be unable to bowl during the four-match series.However, South Africa coach Mickey Arthur was not ruling out one of his key players and was still holding onto hope that he can play a part with the ball. He echoed Mike Proctor’s view after the convenor of selectors said Kallis was 50-50 to appear at Centurion Park, although Arthur was more positive about Kallis’ prospects as a batsman.”We certainly haven’t ruled him out of bowling during the series and we are still working hard with him ahead of the first Test,” Arthur told Cricinfo. “He has been using an oxygen chamber to try and speed the recovery and is doing extensive rehab every day.”At the moment the best-case scenario is that he bats and bowls at Centurion which is probably 50-50, the next best is that he just bats which is probably around 60-40 and the worst case scenario is that he is only fit for Durban.”Kallis would not be the first player to use oxygen therapy to aid recovery from injury. Simon Jones underwent similar treatment in 2005 when he was trying to be fit for the final Ashes Test although the process was ultimately unsuccessful for him. The benefit of the chambers is that they can supply 100% pure oxygen which helps the body fight injury compared with the normal air which contains only about 20% oxygen.Kallis played in the second Twenty20 international against England before the extent of the rib injury was confirmed. He will be fully assessed when the South African squad meets up in Potchefstroom on Friday for a three-day training camp. “Our priority was the Test series which is why he was pulled from the one-dayers so he didn’t do further damage,” Arthur said. “We will have a far better idea of where we stand on Sunday.”Arthur also confirmed that Dale Steyn was progressing well after his hamstring injury and that the paceman bowled six overs in the nets on Wednesday. Steyn was ruled out of the final two ODIs but now looks set to lead the pace attack alongside Makhaya Ntini, who will reach 100 caps, and probably Morne Morkel.

Ponting's toss decision vindicated

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In the most unbelievable turnaround Ricky Ponting’s men up-ended Pakistan on a swinging day to wrap up the series at the SCG

Peter English at the SCG06-Jan-2010All the Australian team talk was right and the doubters were wrong. In the most unbelievable turnaround Ricky Ponting’s men up-ended Pakistan on a swinging day to wrap up the series at the SCG and earn smug smiles and wild celebrations.Under Ponting the Australians have secured a handful of unthinkable wins, but Ponting rated this at the top, given the self-inflicted circumstances and the huge amount they were behind. There were many reasons why they shouldn’t have won by 36 runs: Ponting shouldn’t have won the toss and batted; Pakistan shouldn’t have given up a 206-run first-innings advantage; Kamran Akmal shouldn’t have dropped Michael Hussey three times; and Australia shouldn’t have been able to escape from eight-down on the final morning with a lead of 80. They don’t matter now.Ponting believes in his team at every position and on days like today everyone can see why. “What we have read over the last couple of days and what we have seen on the news has probably just steeled us all a little bit,” Ponting said. “It’s just made us want to fight the game out as much as we can and prove that we are never out of the contest.”They did this sort of thing in Adelaide in 2006-07, when the second Ashes Test was drifting to a draw before Shane Warne intervened. A year later it was Michael Clarke’s three wickets in the last over that did for India at the SCG, and on the same ground 12 months ago Mitchell Johnson bowled the injured Graeme Smith just before time ran out. In those games Australia were in charge, racing to seal the victory they deserved.This time they stole it from Pakistan by completing an outrageous comeback on a ground the local players now believe they can do anything on. “I think this is the most satisfying one [of the SCG wins] because I don’t think anyone in the world apart from all the blokes inside our dressing room thought we could win,” Ponting said.Australia’s current unit is not jammed full of world-beating talent, but it is crammed with desire, and will suffer for their captain. Nathan Hauritz picked up a bleeding finger and a bruised chest from his caught-and-bowled off Mohammad Yousuf’s stinging straight drive, the key wicket of the final innings, and walked off with his second five-for in two Tests.Peter Siddle carries a sore shoulder from his career-best 38, an innings as important to the victory as Michael Hussey’s 134, which pulled Australia from depression. Shane Watson’s smooth 97 was also invaluable and Mitchell Johnson slid through on his captain’s backing with two wickets in his opening over before tea. That reduced Pakistan to 3 for 51 in their previously comfortable chase of 176, but they were quickly being tortured. Ecstasy was soon the only emotion for the locals who were jigging, jumping and dancing on and off the field.Results like these can change the course of history. In 1992 in Colombo, Australia were faced with a similar situation, surging back from a 291-run first-innings deficit to dismiss Sri Lanka for 164, 17 short of victory. Warne was the hero in the final stages of that game and was soon drenched in match-winning aura as the team shot to the top of the world. In this one Hauritz got in the road of Pakistan to leave with 5 for 53, the best return of his 12 Tests.Ponting was heavily criticised from the first day for his decision to bat on a juicy surface that set up Australia’s fall for 127. By the end his logic was satisfyingly sound. “I backed us at the start of the game to make more runs in the first innings than what I thought Pakistan could make in the last innings,” he said. “As it turns out we got 120-odd and bowled them out for 139 in the last innings of the game.”At one stage during his post-mortem a relaxed Ponting teasingly asked all those in the press conference who had doubted his decision to raise their hands. All the Australian journalists’ arms went up. “I feel better now,” he said. He smiled, knowing that when it comes to Australia’s Test team he knows best. “It comes down to results and we’ve got a great result here,” he said. “So I look like a genius where I didn’t a couple of days ago.”

India seize advantage despite Mahmudullah heroics

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With Bangladesh throwing away their last four wickets and falling behind by one run, India didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth and went on to extend their lead with nine wickets in hand

The Bulletin by Sidharth Monga19-Jan-2010
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
How they were out
Mushfiqur Rahim played straight until he committed an error•AFP

A brain freeze from the Bangladesh lower order squandered the initiative that a 108-run seventh-wicket stand had secured them. With Bangladesh throwing away their last four wickets and falling behind by one run, India didn’t look the gift horse in the mouth and went on to extend that lead to 123 with nine wickets in hand.From 98 for 6, Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur Rahim had carried Bangladesh past 200 when common sense deserted them. Mushfiqur, who had survived an edgy period early on, threw it away by slog-sweeping an innocuous-looking Amit Mishra from wide outside off. No. 9 Shahadat Hossain came out swinging like the climax of a Western, as opposed to giving the strike to Mahmudullah, who was already past his maiden Test fifty by then.In the last over before tea, Shahadat chipped Mishra straight to cover. Back after the break, Mahmudullah smote the first ball for four, but when he lofted the fifth ball of the over over mid-on, he came back for two – any other settled batsman would have taken a single and seen out the whole of the next over. Under pressure to take a single next ball, he opened the face and edged Sreesanth to Dinesh Karthik. In the next over, Shafiul Islam got off the mark in Tests with a mowed six, but sliced the next ball to point. Just like that, a golden opportunity of keeping India in the field till about stumps had passed Bangladesh by.They lost wickets in clusters: the last four for 36 runs, and the first six for 45. Of those six, three came early on the third morning. Zaheer Khan and Ishant Sharma continued from their impressive spells from the second day and the batsmen kept obliging. There was slight seam movement and bounce in the pitch, enough to make the batsmen regularly play down the wrong line.Mohammad Ashraful was all at sea, playing Zaheer away from the body, and getting squared up by Ishant. The ever so slight holding of the line from Ishant, and a shade of extra bounce, was enough to awkwardly square up Ashraful and take the shoulder of the bat. Shakib Al Hasan looked to counterattack, hitting four boundaries in the next four overs. Again, all it took was a slight straightening of the ball, and a slash at a wide delivery was flying over gully when Virender Sehwag intercepted it perfectly.When Zaheer and Ishant were taken off simultaneously, their partnership had resulted in five wickets for 59 runs, during the 23 overs they bowled on the trot. Sreesanth came back to end Raqibul Hasan’s resistance, who too played inside the line of a straight delivery, and edged.The seventh-wicket partnership stopped the procession of dismissals to outside edges and made India go wicketless for almost a full session, leading Bangladesh to a first-innings lead at the same time. Zaheer, the pick of the bowlers, struggled for support, with Sreesanth warned once for running on the pitch and over-stepping almost every second delivery. Mishra was not looking effective at all and Mahmudullah got stuck into him. Between them, Sreesanth and Mishra bowled 12 no-balls.The duo didn’t entirely abort the shots that had proved to be fatal for the earlier batsmen, but were slightly more sensible. They did get away with plays and misses to begin with, but when they chased the wide ones, soft hands meant the ball didn’t fly towards slips. In fact, the third man area leaked eight boundaries.The other big difference the two made was the running between the wickets. They ran hard, and they ran more often, which meant neither of the batsmen got stuck at one end for too long. Nineteen boundaries had been hit before the two came together and 14 came during their stand.As the stand grew bigger, the batsmen grew surer. Mahmudullah started targeting Mishra, driving him through the covers, lofting him over mid-on, and paddling him to alternate the strike. But then, Bangladesh chose to display their lack of experience.Coming into bat one run ahead, Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir were more circumspect than in the first innings. They saw off the aggressive Shahadat without much adventure, and punished the other fast bowers, Shafiul and Rubel Hossain. With eight of their overs going for 55, Shakib had to bring himself on early again. By then, almost nonchalantly Sehwag and Gambhir had added 56 in 10 overs.Sehwag stayed quiet against his first-innings nemesis for a bit, and had taken only five off 16 Shakib deliveries when he stepped out and launched him over long-on. Four balls later the slog-sweep against the turn consumed Sehwag. Sent in originally as nightwatchman, Mishra reversed roles, and got his own back at Mahmudullah, dancing down the track and lofting him over mid-on twice on the way to an unbeaten 24 off 21 deliveries. He subjected the other spinners to three other boundaries, taking his tally to one more than Gambhir’s, who had seemed inconspicuous and yet scored 47 off 56.

Record breakers pleased with their efforts

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Martin Guptill and Brendon McCullum, who broke several records during their 339-run stand, were pleased with the impact their performance has had on the match

Andrew Fernando16-Feb-2010Martin Guptilland Brendon McCullum were satisfied with their record-breaking stand that rescued the New Zealand innings from a precarious position in Hamilton. “We just tried to get a significant partnership together at the start and we were happy to provide the runs that were needed by the team,” McCullum said.During the course of his career-best 185, he eclipsed Ian Smith’s record for the highest score by a New Zealand wicketkeeper, but McCullum chose to focus on the significance of the effort from a team’s perspective.”Once we built a substantial partnership we knew that those sorts of things are always around the corner, but the important thing is that we were able to take the team to a good position.”Guptill was pleased to bring up his maiden Test ton. “Getting your first Test hundred is always a great feeling,” he said. “It was also fantastic to get past that 150-mark, there was a lot of elation.” In his short international career, Guptill has featured mostly at No.3, and said that the shift to No.5 was initiated by his coach.”It was Mark Greatbatch who suggested I move to No.5, and I’m pretty pleased with the way it went.” McCullum too, was appreciative of Greatbatch’s impact, claiming “it was helpful to have someone like [Greatbatch] to talk to during the innings, someone who had played for New Zealand and been in similar situations.”McCullum acknowledged New Zealand’s stranglehold on the match. “We just have to keep hitting the good areas and execute our plans and there is every chance that we can effect the follow on,” he said.Rubel Hossain, who picked up his maiden five-wicket haul in Tests with the scalps of the two centurions, was optimistic about his sides chances. He believed that if the Bangladesh top order batted well, as Tamim Iqbal had done thus far, there was no reason they couldn’t avoid the follow on.

Injured Zaheer to miss ODI series

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India have been dealt a jolt ahead of the one-day series with news that Zaheer Khan has been ruled out with a muscle pull

Cricinfo staff18-Feb-2010India have been dealt a jolt ahead of the one-day series with news that Zaheer Khan has been ruled out with a muscle strain in his leg. The Indian board named Sreesanth as his replacement.Zaheer, who did not take the field on day five of the Kolkata Test, pulled up with what appeared a painful right knee after bowling one over during the afternoon session on day four yesterday, and did not return to bowl on the final day as India attempted to square the series.Prior to walking off the field yesterday, Zaheer had stepped off on a couple of occasions for treatment.Zaheer, 31, made his international comeback for the Tests against Sri Lanka late last year having recovered from the injury he sustained during the 2009 IPL. He featured in the tri-series in Bangladesh last month as well as the two Tests there. Zaheer’s fitness will undoubtedly be monitored closely considering the third season of the IPL is a few weeks away.

Bangladesh pay the price for negativity

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Nobody in their right minds expected this Test series to be competitivebut the chasm that opened up on the first day at Chittagong was thoroughly and abjectly depressing

Andrew Miller in Chittagong12-Mar-2010Nobody in their right minds expected this Test series to be competitive, despite the undoubted strides that Bangladesh have made in recent months, but the chasm that opened up on the first day at Chittagong was thoroughly and abjectly depressing.All tour long, Bangladesh have talked a good talk and they even fought a good fight during the one-dayers, never more impressively than during the second match at Dhaka, when only a super-focussed Eoin Morgan stood between them and an historic result. But today every ounce of bravado deserted them – with the ball, in the field, but most crucially of all, in the demeanours of the two most combative characters in their camp.Jamie Siddons and Shakib Al Hasan have been up and at England since the very start of the tour. It was Siddons who declared that his team intended to “bite England on the bum” after their decision to give Andrew Strauss a sabbatical, and while Shakib has let his cricket do most of the talking, he hasn’t been afraid to sound off when prompted, such as his declaration after Dhaka that Bangladesh were more interested in taking on the big guns of one-day cricket, rather than fret about England’s mediocre middle-rankers.It’s been refreshing, to be honest, to hear the small fry talking big, even when what they’ve been saying hasn’t quite stacked up in the final analysis. After all, confidence begets confidence, as Kevin Pietersen knows only too well. But today Bangladesh’s words and deeds were completely polarised by the reality that slipped in between them, and nothing reeked more of surrender than their decision to pack their team with spinners, and then bowl first on a shirt-front.”We thought we knew a bit about the Chittagong wicket, and we thought that it would spin on day one, and get flatter and flatter like it has in the past,” said Siddons. “In hindsight it was probably a bad decision.” But seeing as England had taken their gift-horse at face value and clattered along to 374 for 3 at the close, hindsight wasn’t really the most pressing of their problems.Of far greater importance would have been a bit of foresight, a bit of conventional wisdom, and a nod to the small matters of pride and body language – all of these factors surely demanded that Bangladesh front up and play the game according to Siddons’ often-mentioned “team rules”. As they showed at times during the one-dayers, the team has the ability to bat calmly and assuredly against an England attack that, in the coach’s own words, had not penetrated them to any great effect. By doing so, they could have set a platform for their spinners to attack.Of course that policy could easily have gone wrong – it goes without saying, this is Bangladesh and they have a record of L55, W3. But at least by doing so, they might have spared themselves the “what ifs”. Instead, the impression was of a team that had pulled its punches (just as they did in this same city when England last visited six years ago) and Siddons looked like the public the face of a broken dressing-room when he fronted up on behalf of his players in the post-match press conference.On the one hand Siddons blamed the pitch for failing to meet his ambitious expectations – and while it is true that, back in January, India were skittled here for 243 after being asked to bat first (with Shakib claiming 5 for 62), the X-factor in that performance had been Virender Sehwag’s dismissal of Bangladesh as “ordinary” and the righteous indignation that his comments had fuelled.There was no such whiff of cordite in the air today, only the vaguest ripple of interest in a disappointingly sparse crowd, and the team reacted to the atmosphere accordingly, with Shakib’s own return a mute 21-2-80-0. That said, it was hardly necessary for Siddons to trot out quite such a list of disclaimers afterwards, as he managed to shrug every ounce of blame onto the shoulders of the boys he professes to be nurturing.His fast bowlers, he said, “had let the team down”; his left-arm-spinning captain, he said, had been the one who wanted to bowl first (“and I’ll be supportive of [him]”), and suddenly his “world-class” four-man spin attack had been downgraded to “two genuine spinners and two part-time offies”. As support acts go, it was about as comforting as Duncan Fletcher’s declaration that he “wasn’t the only selector” on England’s disastrous Ashes campaign in 2006-07, except in Siddons’ case he didn’t bother to couch his criticisms in code.”Our strength is our spin, so it didn’t matter whether we bowled first or second,” he added, incongruously. “Our quicks weren’t going to be the answer on that pitch, and won’t be throughout the game, they won’t play a massive part.” A statement which begs the question, did they even try to exploit the moisture in the first half-an-hour, or wasn’t that even taken into consideration?”We’ve probably put ourselves out of the game, which we tend to do a lot on the first day or the first session of a game, unless we bowl terrifically in the morning, and even then we’ll have to bat the house down,” Siddons concluded. “I expect them to make somewhere around 500, and that’s if we bowl well. It’s been a difficult day, and only one team can win.”In all honesty, only one team has ever been likely to win this match and this series from the moment the tour began. But as Siddons himself has declared at length all month, his tenure is not about victories, it’s about making visible signs of progress. Today, however, Bangladesh were in full retreat before the match referee had retrieved his coin.

It's about striking a happy medium – Ray Jennings

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Despite the unexpected slowing down of their campaign, Royal Challengers Bangalore coach Ray Jennings expressed confidence in his side’s combination, and the strategy of tempered aggression

Cricinfo staff08-Apr-2010Royal Challengers Bangalore were the team to beat in the initial stages of the IPL, but their campaign has slowed down with defeats in three of their last four matches. Ray Jennings, their coach, acknowledged that the conservative mindset of the top order hampered their momentum, but insisted they would continue to balance defence with attack.”I think against Chennai Super Kings, the problem was that when we lost [Jacques] Kallis and [Virat] Kohli, we lost two wickets in 15 balls and just made three runs. I think that made the difference,” Jennings was quoted as saying by Deccan Herald. “We were a little bit conservative against the Delhi side. The top order has planned the innings very well over the season – to not be over-powerful in the first six overs and not too conservative as well, it’s all about striking a happy medium.”That’s why guys like Kallis and Robin Uthappa need to bat up the order and plan the innings properly. I need to trust those guys to do the job for us,” Jennings said.Bangalore had a winning combination for the first leg of the tournament, before the arrival of Ross Taylor, Kevin Pietersen and Cameron White made them tinker with the line-up. Jennings denied that the team management faced difficulties in selecting the eleven. “You might think that the permutations are confusing but I have a clear idea about them. When these combinations work on the field, it can look nice, but when it does, you look like an idiot. Drawing up permutations is an easy job, but the hard part is to maintain the right energy level in the player assigned to do the job,” he said.Jennings noted the importance of properly defining roles in a line-up filled with different types of players. “We have 120 balls to play and the role of each cricketer has to be defined according to the situation. With players like Kevin Pietersen and Ross [Taylor] coming in, the role of each batsman has to be defined. Sometimes it’s easier for an allrounder or a young Indian player to hit the ball around, and at that time the roles could be changed,” Jennings said.Jennings acknowledged the impact of the senior players in keeping the team spirit up. “We have seven or eight international captains with us and we have three legends in our ranks – Kumble, Dravid and Kallis – and not many sides have got those kind of players together. They are in the background of keeping the team together and helping me exectute the strategies with honesty and peace, making sure that we make an impact.”Bangalore’s next match is against the Deccan Chargers who are going through a slump, with five successive defeats, but Jennings was not taking them lightly. “There is no good time to play any side. Tomorrow, if [Adam] Gilchrist gets a hundred then we can struggle, so we need to come to the field with the best preparations. I don’t look at yesterday’s match as tomorrow we need to play a fresh game,” he said.

Rohit fined for showing dissent

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Indian batsman Rohit Sharma has been fined 15% of his match fee for showing dissent at the umpire’s decision while batting during the Super Eights match against West Indies at the Kensington Oval on Sunday

Cricinfo staff10-May-2010Indian batsman Rohit Sharma has been fined 15% of his match fee for showing dissent at the umpire’s decision while batting during the Super Eights match against West Indies at the Kensington Oval on Sunday.Rohit was on five when he tried to paddle sweep Kieron Pollard. The ball lobbed up to the wicketkeeper Denesh Ramdin, who claimed the catch and the appeal was upheld by the umpire Billy Bowden. However, Rohit initially refused to leave as he gestured to the umpire that the ball lobbed off his arm. Bowden walked across to the square leg umpire Simon Taufel but the umpires obviously couldn’t refer it to the third umpire because the argument was not about whether the catch was taken cleanly or not.Jeff Crowe, the ICC match referee, found Rohit guilty of a Level 1 offense and the batsman pleaded guilty.

Northants seal thrilling chase

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Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road

20-May-2010
Scorecard
Alex Wakely’s half-century helped Northamptonshire to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Championship leaders Sussex on day three at Wantage Road.Wakely’s 51 from 127 balls, aided by former captain Nicky Boje’s explosive 42 from 56 balls, steered the hosts towards their win after they had been left struggling on 88 for 5. Three wickets apiece for Jack Brooks and Lee Daggett helped Northamptonshire, who have announced the signature of former Sri Lanka bowler Chaminda Vaas, to bowl out Sussex for 274, leaving the hosts with a target of 171, which they reached inside 49 overs.At the start of the third day Sussex had resumed on 137 for 2, 38 runs ahead of Northants, with Michael Thornley and captain Murray Goodwin on 45 and 21 respectively. Thornley completed a patient half-century from 138 balls, but he added just one more run before he edged Daggett to Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien.England keeper Matt Prior came to the crease, but he went without troubling the scorers when he was trapped lbw in Brooks’ first over of the day. Goodwin made it to 39 before he was superbly caught at second slip by David Sales off the bowling of Daggett.The collapse continued when Andrew Hodd (5) gave Wakely the easiest of catches at mid-wicket before James Middlebrook was brought into the attack and he trapped Ollie Rayner (27) lbw.David Willey grabbed the wicket of Rana Naved (7) in the second over after lunch when a loose shot from the Pakistan international went to Sales at second slip. James Anyon made just a single before Brooks sent his off stump spinning and Robin Martin-Jenkins was left unbeaten on 55 off 71 balls after Corey Collymore (5) was pinned leg before by Willey.Early in the Northamptonshire chase, Stephen Peters went past 10,000 first-class career runs before he went for just four when Naved trapped him lbw. Fellow opener O’Brien made 24 before his drive off Collymore went towards Anyon at wide mid-on and he took a fantastic catch low down to his left.Anyon then forced Sales (12) to play on to his off stump to leave Northants on 57 for three, before Rob White (9) was caught and bowled by Rayner in the first over after tea. Home captain Andrew Hall, who faced four balls without scoring, then became the next batsman out lbw, dismissed by Rayner.Chris Nash claimed the wickets of Boje and Wakely, caught by Collymore and Prior respectively after valuable scores, before Middlebrook and Willey ensured Northamptonshire claimed their third win of the season.