As part of Northamptonshire’s pre-season preparations, the squad faced off in an internal 60-over game at Groot Drakenstein CC.
The two teams were lead by Luke Procter and Justin Broad respectively, with Broad’s side batting first.
Ricardo Vasconcelos hit four 6’s and nine 4’s before he retired on 93, and Team Broad finished 277/8 after 60 overs. Vasconcelos was backed up by cameos from Broad (39*) and Louis Kimber (36*). Ben Sanderson (10-4-15-1) and Calvin Harrison threatened for Team Procter, with the latter taking 3/26 from 9.4 overs.
Procter and Gus Miller made a productive opening stand which passed 50, and the pair were ably supported by Lewis McManus (61) and Aadi Sharma (33).
Team Procter came out on top at the end of play which rounded off a productive day’s work.
After the game, Andrew Radd spoke to Head Coach Darren Lehmann about the time spent in the middle, Ben Sanderson and Ricardo Vasconcelos, as well as providing an update on Nathan McSweeney after South Australia qualified for the Sheffield Shield Final, which starts on 25th March.
On the quality of the game between the two sides:
“It was a great opportunity for us to be outdoors in great conditions. The wicket was great so for us it has been a fantastic exercise for us as a team.
“The bowlers got through without injuries, that’s the pleasing thing. Everyone looks like they are hitting top form at the right time of the year and it’s giving us selection headaches which is what we want.
“If we have some depth in the squad, it means that your performances count in the first or second teams. We want our boys to make big hundreds and big runs but overall I thought our bowlers were excellent today.”
On Ben Sanderson continuing his shoulder recovery:
“The old fella keeps going doesn’t he. He’s still a bit off after coming back from a shoulder issue but to get that far in front of the game at the moment is great. We hope he’s available for that first game because he is so valuable to our bowling attack, we know that.
“The pleasing thing is that we have some depth in our bowling as well now so it’s looking good.”
On Ricardo Vasconcelos hitting an unbeaten 93:
“Vasco played beautifully, we had to retire him because he kept losing balls!
“He played a bit more like the old Vasco I think, he’s opened his off side play and he played the quicks really well because it was challenging this morning. It was an early start and it swung and nipped around a bit but I thought he played beautifully today.”
On Nathan McSweeney being available for the first game of the season:
“Well fingers crossed. Firstly we wish him the best with South Australia being my home state and hopefully he does really well and has the chance to win back-to-back titles.
“For us it means just waiting and seeing what time he is around. If he got here the day before it might be a bit hard to play the first game, but we’ll just be open and honest with our fans and we’ll do the best we can to update you all.
“He’s desperate to get here for the first game, it’s just whether they play a long five-day game then gets here the night before but we’ll weigh that up and make a good choice on Nathan because he’s here for the whole year so it’s pretty important we get him fresh and ready to go.”