Northamptonshire take on division leaders Durham at the cinch County Ground from Wednesday in a crucial fixture in the race for promotion.
Durham are currently 40 points ahead of Kent and Northamptonshire who sit level on points with four games remaining in this year’s County Championship.
Despite brilliant centuries for Ricardo Vasconcelos and Nathan McSweeney rain turned the Kent fixture into a battle for bonus points.
In the only game to have a result in the last set of fixtures, Durham secured a ten-wicket victory against bottom side Gloucestershire.
Match Information:
As we are now in September, the final four County Championship games of the season will start at 10:30am, with the toss scheduled for 10am.
A live stream will be available to watch on YouTube on Steelbacks TV, and you can follow all of the action with live match updates on our social media channels.
For the next two home games, all Northamptonshire Season Ticket Holders and members, there is 20% off all items in the Club Shop.
Nuts For Your Coffee will be at the ground for all four days. The Mushtaq Mohammad will be open and serving food and drink.
Squad news:
It’s an unchanged squad from last week’s draw with Kent.
Nathan McSweeney will feature for Northamptonshire for the last time this season after receiving an Australia A call up for their tour to India. Everyone at the Club would like to thank Nathan for his efforts and are looking forward to welcoming him back next year.
Northamptonshire squad to face Durham:
Luke Procter (c), George Bartlett, Yuzi Chahal, Liam Guthrie, Calvin Harrison, Louis Kimber, Lewis McManus (wk), Nathan McSweeney, Stuart van der Merwe, Gus Miller, James Sales, Ben Sanderson, George Scrimshaw, Ricardo Vasconcelos, Raphy Weatherall, Saif Zaib
We spoke to Head Coach Darren Lehmann about facing the league leaders, the hard work of the groundstaff and the impact Nathan McSweeney has had.
Last time we met:
Division leaders Durham were victorious by six wickets when the two sides met at Chester-le-Street in June.
Having been put into bat, Northamptonshire managed to set 450 with the bulk of the runs coming from Vasconcelos who hit 187 runs off 295 balls supported by half-centuries from Luke Procter and Saif Zaib.
Ben Stokes featured for Durham and hit 95 runs as the hosts hit 405 with Ben Sanderson and Harry Conway both picking up four wickets each.
Gus Miller and McSweeney both achieved fifty in the second innings, but Northamptonshire only reached 250 and set a total of 295.
A David Bedingham century guided Durham to a six-wicket victory as they created more distance at the top of the table.
Opposition Preview:
Captain: Alex Lees
Head coach: Ryan Campbell
2025 finish: 9th (in Division One, relegated)
2025 leading run-scorer: Emilio Gay (954)
2025 leading wicket-taker: Ben Raine (44)
Unbeaten so far in 2026, Durham pose a very difficult prospect for Northamptonshire as they look to take a big step towards promotion back to Division One at the first attempt.
Bedingham leads the way with the most runs in the division on 943 from 14 innings at an average of 78.58 as well as five centuries.
With 52 wickets in nine matches, Matthew Potts is just ahead of Sanderson for top spot in the overall wicket taker list for the division.
After his retirement from international cricket, Stokes has returned to play for his county and has hit over 40 in his last three County Championship innings plus a five-for versus Durham.
The county have also made a new signing for the final four games of the season bringing in Indian international Mayank Agarwal.