Duckett stars as Northants reach final

Northamptonshire 161 for 8 (Duckett 84, Wakely 53, Russell 3-20) beat Nottinghamshire 153 for 9 (Russell 39, Read 30, Crook 3-28) by eight runs Scorecard

A career-best T20 score from Ben Duckett powered Northants into the NatWest Blast T20 final for the third time in four years.

Despite their well-documented financial troubles and the loss of Seekkuge Prasanna to international duty and Richard Gleeson to injury, Northants overcame a Nottinghamshire side that came into finals day having won their last nine T20 matches and containing nine international players and to win by eight runs.

Northants looked unlikely victors when, 14 balls into the game, they had subsided to 15 for 3. And, had either of two inside edges from Duckett’s bat hit the stumps rather than skidded to the fine leg boundary, it is quite possible this match could have ended as a contest almost before it had begun.

But in partnership with captain Alex Wakely, Duckett helped add 132 in 82 balls showed once again why he is one of the highest-rated young batsmen in county cricket.

Demonstrating an outrageous range of scoops, reverse pulls and drives, Duckett thrashed 84 from 47 balls – only two short of the record individual score on Finals Day – to take Northants to a competitive total.

While some batsman might have been forgiven for consolidating after such a poor start, Duckett reasoned there was little sense in attempting to eke out a modest total on what looks to be an excellent surface and instead counter-attacked from the start.

Stuart Broad was laced through …

continue reading in source www.espncricinfo.com