Barker Overwhelms Northants

A belligerent 48 from Keith Barker helped the Bears power past Northants Steelbacks at Wantage Road.

Barker’s innings spanned just 28 deliveries and helped Warwickshire claim a six-wicket victory that moved them to second place in the North Group.

Steelbacks skipper Andrew Hall won the toss and elected to bat. However, David Sales and former Sri Lanka international Chaminda Vaas had put on just 19 runs before Chris Woakes induced Sales to pick out Ant Botha at mid-off.

Ireland wicketkeeper Niall O’Brien swiftly followed Sales back to the pavilion when he miscued an attempted pull off Barker, who calmly claimed the resultant catch.

Vaas, who has been the Steelbacks’ standout performer during the competition, was finding the going tough against the hostility of Woakes, Barker and Neil Carter and laboured his way to 16 off 23 deliveries before Warwickshire skipper introduced the leg-spin of Imran Tahir into the attack.

Vaas instantly looked to attack but could only feather an edge through to Tim Ambrose behind the stumps to leave the hosts struggling at 41-3.

However, an excellent 77-run partnership between Alex Wakely (who made 41 from 30 balls including three fours and one six) and the in-form Stephen Peters (39 runs from 31 balls including three fours) stabilised the Northants innings, with both men running hard between the wickets and putting away any bad balls that came their way.

However, the return of Woakes for the 17th over broke the partnership and ensured that the Steelbacks weren’t able to mount a late-innings charge. Peters was the first to depart when he top-edged a short ball to third man, and two deliveries later Wakely picked out Steffan Piolet at long-off.

Hall (7) and Elton Chigumbura (15) did their best to give the innings a late flourish, but Warwickshire’s attack kept to their task with aplomb and restricted their hosts to just 146-5.

Warwickshire’s response got off to an unfortunate start when Carter, who had thrashed two fours off the first five deliveries of the innings, drove Vaas straight into the hands of David Lucas. However, his departure brought Barker to the crease, and together he and Darren Maddy set about the Northants attack with gusto to put Warwickshire firmly in control of the match.

The pair added 77 for the third wicket, with Barker hitting six boundaries, before Maddy fell to Chigumbura having hit 30 off 24 balls. Chigumbura then proceeded to pick up two wickets in consecutive deliveries when Barker picked out Hall at cover and Troughton (1) feathered a catch through to O’Brien to raise the home crowd’s hopes of an unlikely rally.

However, sensible innings from Ian Westwood (24*) and Tim Ambrose (30*) ensured that the result was never in doubt and the Bears coasted home with 11 deliveries to spare.

Warwickshire Bears 147-4 (Barker 46; Chigumbura 3-19) beat Northants Steelbacks 146-5 (Wakely 41; Woakes 3-21) by six wickets.