76 for Ricardo Vasconcelos in Thursday\u2019s fifty over friendly capped off a productive three days at Trent Bridge for Northamptonshire.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The squad travelled to Nottingham on Tuesday and played nearly 300 overs of red and white ball cricket on a newly developed \u2018hybrid\u2019 pitch, which is a combination of natural grass and yarn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s been a great few days, the weather was great and it\u2019s good to be back outside\u201d Assistant First Team Coach Phil Rowe said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was like a middle of the season pitch rather than early season pitch which was good, it was tougher to get the ball to nip around and it made discipline more important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
No-one in England\u2019s ever played on one before and it behaved really well, it was a good practice pitch.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The scorecards certainly suggest the hybrid pitch performed well, with 1,500 runs scored and a number of Northants batsmen passing 50. Curran (59), Procter (54 and 50*), Vasconcelos (76) and Cobb (79) all raised the bat, with Keogh reaching 40 on two occasions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt was nice to get some time out in the middle before the season starts, get a bit of confidence going into the first few games and carry that on throughout the season\u201d Vasconcelos said of his performance on Thursday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe\u2019re all positive, there\u2019s a lot of positives to take out of the games, everyone\u2019s looking forward to getting going\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Head Coach David Ripley was also pleased with what he saw at Trent Bridge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cPeople had time in the middle and bowlers got overs in their legs so all in all we had a really good three days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There were quite a few lads who had a good three days, the next game isn\u2019t far away so you want guys coming back feeling like their getting into a bit of knick\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s about sharpening the pencil a little bit, the Middlesex game is looming and it\u2019s perhaps the last chance for lads to really make sure they get their name on the team sheet.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n