Capel praises Northants efforts

Niall O'Brien returned to face the Australians after an ankle injury

Northants head coach David Capel was pleased with their their performance despite the 135-run loss to Australia.

Alex Wakely, Rikki Wessels and Niall O'Brien scored half centuries, whilst Jack Brooks took two wickets on his first-class debut.

Capel told BBC Radio Northampton: "Brooks is an exciting kind of player, and I'm pretty confident that he should be getting more opportunities.

"I think everyone can be proud. We played some excellent cricket."

Capel also praised the Australians and indicated that his players would learn from the encounter.

"Shane Watson was impressive with the bat. And (former Northants captain) Mike Hussey's performance was no surprise to me, he built up the first innings," he said.

"Their all rounder McDonald was a super cricketer.

"There's things our players will have picked up on from playing well, and there's things to notice from the opposition."

Let's keep producing that kind of performance for the rest of the season

Northants head coach David Capel

Niall O'Brien and Ben Howgego put on a 99-run partnership to open the second innings.

"Howgego settled in and played well, showed a good temperament and looked unflappable. O'Brien played some attractive strokes and he was very disappointed with himself to get out after 50," he said.

All five of the Northants bowlers took wickets against the Australians.

"It's a fairly young side and there's been some good bowling performances. David Wigley got out Phillip Hughes a couple of times, and David Willey showed me something with swing and bounce," Capel said.

"I told the team let's keep producing that kind of performance for the rest of the season, particularly with our excellent fielding."