Northamptonshire return to red-ball action as they visit Middlesex in the next round of the Rothesay County Championship.
Last time out, Darren Lehmann’s side were just two wickets away from recording a famous victory away at Kent. Setting up the game with a mammoth 722-6, the home side were 135-8 until some resistance with the bat late on day four from Joey Evison halted the seemingly inevitable charge, as players shook hands with the points shared.
With quarter-final qualification secured in the Vitality Blast and a trip to The Oval against Surrey in place, attention is now firmly on pushing for promotion in the four-day format.
The trip to Merchant Taylors’ School to face Middlesex is the perfect opportunity to stretch their unbeaten run to four games and close the gap on Derbyshire in 2nd, who hold just an 18-point lead over Northamptonshire in 5th.
Justin Broad misses out with a wrist issue, while there are returns to the County Championship squad for Ben Sanderson, Rob Keogh and Aadi Sharma.
Middlesex sit 7th despite a thumping innings victory away at Leicestershire last time out. Three consecutive defeats prior to that have left them just one place above the foot of Division 2, though, and will need a positive result this week to maintain the gap above bottom.