Broad hails Steelbacks' resilience as they once again hold their nerve when it comes to the crunch

Justin Broad praised the Steelbacks' fight and resilience as they once again found a way come out on the right end of a tight result in Saturday night's tense seven-run victory at Durham in the Vitality Blast.

Northants made it five wins out of five to sit proudly at the top of the Central & West Group, and they will be aiming to maintain that winning run when they host Worcestershire Rapids at the County Ground on Tuesday night (start 6.30pm).

Already this season, the Steelbacks have had to hold their nerve to win three of their five matches in the final over, and Broad believes that is a good habit to have.

"In close games we are finding a way to win, which I think is crucial," Broad told BBC Northampton after the win at Chester-le-Street.

"Starting the comp with five from five is big, and I thought all the boys played really well, and found that way to win.”

Looking back on the game, Broad said: “The pitch was quite a strange one.

"Cross seamers from the seam bowlers were standing up quite a bit, and then when they bowled seam up, one would skid and one would stand up, and it was a little two-paced.

"There was a bit of turn there as well, so it was hard line up the spinners.

"When I got in with Willo (David Willey), he said he was looking at 170 and to just try and take it as deep as possible, and that is what we tried to do.

"In the end 150 or whatever we got was good enough, but that was probably more of a 160 wicket I would say."

Broad top-scored for the Steelbacks as he made 36 from 32 balls in their 145 for nine, before Durham were restricted to 138 for eight.

There were also key contributions from the likes of Willey (26 from 23), Saif Zaib (25 from 16) and Ricardo Vasconcelos (21 from 22), with even Ben Sanderson's nine not out from five balls at the death provoing pivotal.

And Broad knows the depth of Northants' batting is a huge advantage.

"We have a long batting line-up and the coach wants us to go hard even if we are losing wickets," said vice-captain Broad.

"We kept the intensity, we kept the momentum, and yes we lost wickets pretty consistently but the long batting line up got us through."

Despite their fantastic start and being the only team in the tournament still boasting a 100 per cent record, the Steelbacks are only top of the Central & West Group on nett run-rate.

That's because Gloucestershire joined them on 20 points as they claimed a fifth win in six starts by beating Worcestershire on Sunday afternoon.

There is then an eight point gap to Glamorgan in third, with the Rapids also on 12 points with three wins from five games.

The Steelbacks have already beaten the Worcestershire in the Blast this season, hammering them by 100 runs at New Road in their second fixture.