Kepler feels the pressure
Source -
northantsnews.com
More pressure was heaped on director of cricket Kepler Wessels last night as the Steelbacks crashed out of the Twenty20 Cup.
The Steelbacks conceded a record highest score of 213 for six and were never in it as they lost to Nottinghamshire Outlaws by 63 runs.
Northants targeted a one-day trophy at the start of the season but it has gone disastrously wrong.
They finished bottom of the Cheltenham & Gloucester Trophy North Division, started the Pro40 League with a thumping defeat at Essex and now they are out of the Twenty20 Cup.
And Northants take on Essex in the Liverpool Victoria County Championship at Wantage Road tomorrow bottom of the second division.
Wessels, who has another year on his contract at the end of this season, said his future at the club would not be decided by last night's result, but hinted he would walk away if he wasn't given the resources build a competitive team.
To make matters worse wicketkeeper Riki Wessels is out for some time after pulling is hamstring in farcical circumstances last night. And Bilal Shafayat could face punishment from the England and Wales Cricket Board after a confrontation with umpire Peter Willey following Wessels' controversial run out that saw him stretchered off.
But seamer Ben Phillips still believes Northants can pull their season around, though he admits any chance of the club's first silverware for 14 years has most probably gone with the Steelbacks' demise in the Twenty20 Cup.
"All our hopes were sort of pinned on this competition, but there is still plenty to play for. We can continue to work on our position in the championship and there is no point in getting despondent about the Pro40, we've lost the first game but there are plenty left. We've got to take this defeat on the chin and move on. We've got to try to be positive."
"We came here in high hopes, but we didn't play as well as we would have liked to. They gave us a bit of an exhibition. They bowled a bit harder into the pitch than we did, which in hindsight I could have done better. And the batters hit us for 13 sixes, which is a lot of sixes to be hit for. They outplayed us."
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