Lehmann set to ring the changes for Durham trip as Metro Bank One Day Cup woes continue

The County have made a dismal start to their 50-over campaign, and sit second bottom in Group B having suffered successive defeats at the hands of Yorkshire and Warwickshire after their opener at Lancashire was rained off.

With five matches to play, Northants are already six points adrift of third place and qualification for the knockout stages.

Lehmann was furious following Friday's 202-run hammering at hands of Yorkshire at the County Ground on Friday, and warned some of his senior players they needed to quickly up their game in Sunday's trip to Rugby School to take on Warwickshire.

It was a better showing from Northants, but they still lost by 62 runs, and once again some key players failed to perform when it mattered.

It was a mixed bag from the Steelbacks, who allowed Warwickshire to make 292 for eight in their 50 overs, despite reducing them to 32 for four and 142 for six, with Alex Davies making a brilliant 123 from 123 balls.

Northants were then reasonably well placed at 159 for four after 32 overs in reply, with George Bartlett (47) and Justin Broad (43) well set, but then lost six wickets for 70 runs to collapse to 229 all out, with teenage leg-spinner Taz Ali snaring five for 43.

Lehmann accepted his team were better than they had been against Yorkshire, but when asked if there will be changes for the trip to Chester-le-Street, the head coach told BBC Northampton: "Yes, there will be.

"We have got to be fair to everyone in our squad and actually give them opportunities.

"When you are looking at the squad as a whole, yes we have some injuries and we are down some troops obviously, but still we have to look at the bigger picture and make sure we get guys who can perform for Northamptonshire on a regular occasion.

"We will look at that, we will see how they all go in the twos (second team) and see what happens there.

"But there are blokes that haven't really performed over a long period of time now, and we have to make some changes as that is how you go forward."

Northants IIs play a 50-over friendly against London Schools at the County Ground on Tuesday (start 11am), and those involved will now have extra incentive to produce the goods.

Looking back on the loss to Warwickshire, Lehmann said: "We started pretty well with the ball. Davies played really well but we probably didn't contain him as well as we could have in that little period.

"But the fielding was excellent and the energy was a lot better than last week.

"We need to find ways to take wickets in the middle but it was a better bowling and fielding performance.

"Then the batting faltered again. We had a couple of guys get in, Bartlett and Broad were cruising at one stage, but we have got to be batting deeper and taking the game deeper.

"We are losing wickets at the wrong time all the time, just when we are getting on top and that is the challenge for the group. It is a question of confidence a little bit, I guess, but it's about making the right decisions at the right time.

"Davies played really well and didn't take too many risks and hopefully our guys will look at that and learn from it."

Following Friday’s trip to second-placed Durham, who have won two and lose one of their three games so far, the Steelbacks host Sussex at Wantage Road next Sunday.