COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION TWO, New Road:
Northants 158 & 226-6 beat Worcestershire 287 & 93 by four wickets
Northants 19pts Worcs 5pts
Match scorecard

Wakely hit 12 boundaries in his vital knock

Northants boosted their promotion hopes by completing a superb comeback to beat Worcestershire inside three days.

Chasing 223 to win on a bowler-friendly New Road pitch, Alex Wakely played the key innings as the visitors eased home with four wickets to spare.

Wakely (68) shared gritty stands of 45 with Stephen Peters and 73 with David Sales to all but ensure the victory.

Northants earlier mopped up the final two wickets of Worcestershire's second innings to bowl them out for 93.

The home side's paltry effort was the third lowest total in the Championship this summer.

Resuming on 72-8, Matt Mason was soon dismissed when he edged an Andrew Hall delivery to the wicketkeeper.

James Middlebrook then trapped Richard Jones lbw to give Northants a sniff of what had seemed a most unlikely victory after the first innings.

But even after skittling out Worcestershire so cheaply, a first-innings deficit of 129 runs meant Northants were chasing 223 on an unpredictable pitch and that seemed a big ask.

Former England Under-19 batsman Wakely was soon at the crease when Richard Jones pounced from cover to run out Ben Howgego for the second time in the match.

Wakely was initially watchful as, in partnership with Peters (37), he successfully resisted the threat from veteran seamers Matt Mason and Alan Richardson.

Peters fell to the fifth delivery of Richardson's second spell when he poked the ball to Daryl Mitchell at second slip.

But former captain Sales bounced back from a first-ball dismissal on the previous day to flourish, hitting eight boundaries in his 46 from 67 balls until he was lbw to a full-length delivery from Mason.

That put the visitors on the brink of victory. And despite losing three quick wickets - including Wakely who was caught at short leg off the bowling of Moeen Ali - two fours from David Murphy in the second over after tea saw Northants seal their sixth victory of the season.

Worcestershire captain Vikram Solanki told BBC Hereford & Worcester:
"We got ourselves into a reasonable position after two innings in the game and let ourselves down.

"To get bowled out when you are in front of the game on that type of pitch is not good, and we gave away that advantage.

"There were good balls in it, and it was the type of pitch that was difficult to score.

"Ideally you probably don't want as many wickets to fall in a single day, but we were ahead of the game and we let it go.

"I must admit I was hoping we could set them 300 and with the luxury of hindsight we might have approached our batting slightly differently.

"But hindsight is a luxury and we simply did not bat well enough in our second innings."

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