'We know that we are so much better than this' says Shine after Sabres lose to Steelbacks

The Cidermen will no doubt be glad to be have finished the two match Bath Festival after having gone down by nine wickets to Worcestershire on Saturday afternoon they were well beaten by Northamptonshire in the National Cricket League today.

This afternoon after winning the toss and deciding to bat first the Sabres were quickly in trouble and had slipped to 36 for 5 before the players left the field for heavy rain.

When they returned the match had been reduced to a 35 over contest, and Keith Parsons and Keith Dutch started to steady the innings and get things back on track. The pair brought up the hundred for the Sabres, but six runs later Parsons was run out for 32, after adding 71 for the sixth wicket with Dutch.

After being joined by Rob Turner the former Middlesex man continued with his innings and went onto bring up his own half century before being caught by Jeff Cook off the bowling of Michael Hussey.

The last three Sabres wickets fell cheaply and Turner was eventually left stranded on 17 as he ran out of partners and his side were all out for 143 off 32.3 overs.

The pick of the Steelback's bowlers was Mike Cawdron who ended with the impressive figures of 4 for 31 from his seven over stint.

Chasing a revised total of 131 the Northants openers Hussey and Robert White went off at a rate of knots and scored 28 from the first four overs that were bowled by the Sabres opening attack of Michael Parsons and Simon Francis and brought up the fifty just two overs later.

The introduction of Ian Blackwell into the attack brought the Sabres their first wicket. With the score on 79 White was caught by Francis off the slow left armer for 22.It was Blackwell who struck again shortly afterwards to give the home crowd something to cheer about.

Hussey and David Sales saw the Northants hundred up but with his score on 54 and victory in sight Hussey was caught by wicket-keeper Turner off the bowling of Keith Dutch. Sales was joined by Cook and together they saw the visitors home to a comfortable seven wicket victory (D/L method).

Blackwell was the most successful of the Somerset bowlers with 2 wickets for 14 runs from his 7 overs.

After the end of play Somerset coach Kevin Shine told me: "Sadly this was another poor National Cricket League performance from us today, we just couldn't get into the game. Being 35 for 5 was a killer blow and from then on the momentum was against us."

"Of course we are all very disappointed about the way that we are playing in the National Cricket League because we feel that we are letting the members down."

He continued: "However we have got the new Twenty20 competition starting next weekend, and we will be taking that very seriously indeed. We really do have to get our heads round the one day game and start to get some positive results."

"We are all very hurt, and that includes myself because we are all in this together, in fact we are almost embarrassed by the way that we are playing in the NCL because we know that we are so much better than this," he went on.

"Some counties are treating Twenty20 in a light hearted way, but I can assure the members that we will be taking it very seriously indeed and use it to help us to get our one day form back," the coach concluded.