Northants out to break win duck at Middlesex as they target late surge for promotion

Northants may be sitting second from bottom in the Vitality County Championship Division Two table, but head coach John Sadler is not giving up just yet on a promotion push in the remaining six weeks of the season.

And the fact is that, with more than a third of the red-ball campaign still to be played, the chance of a top two finish this season is still very much a possibilty - providing Northants can do something they've not managed all season, and win a four-day game or two!

The County travel to Merchant Taylors' School in Northwood to do battle with second-placed Middlesex on Thursday, with the gap between the two sides just 30 points with five matches of the season remaining.

A win this week would see Northants very much back in the promotion frame, and Sadler says he and his players are determined to give it the best shot they possibly can.

The squad has been boosted by the arrival of ‘world-class’ Indian leg-spinner Yuzvendra Chahal, who claimed five wickets on his Steelbacks debut last week, and hopes are high that this red-ball season could yet end up being a successful one.

"The One Day Cup was disappointing, and we are looking forward to refocusing on the Championship and giving that a good go over the last five games," said Sadler.

"We are not out of it, and we obviously now have Chahal which gives us more of a wicket-taking threat, and we are going to try everything we can to win these last five games.

"The table doesn't look great at the minute, but a couple of wins will put us right back in the mix, and we are going to do all we can to win these games."

In their nine matches to date, Northants have drawn seven and lost two, but Sadler believes that record doesn't truly reflect how his team has played this season.

"It is frustrating because we should be picking up this competition with three wins to our name," he said.

"Glamorgan at home we should have won, Glamorgan away, and Derby away we had the game won, so with a bit of fortune here and there we could have had three wins, but unfortunately we haven't.

"I also think we have had two bad sessions with the bat this season, and it has cost us two losses, so it is frustrating that's for sure."

The County will walk out at Merchant Taylors' for the second season running, with the two teams playing out a thrilling 599 versus 599 tie a little more than a year ago.

"It was a game we lost, then we won, then we lost it again, then we won it and we ended up settling for a tie! The game had everything," admitted Sadler.

"We know what we are going into, we know what the pitch does, but we will assess it on the day and then pick the best team accordingly.

"Middlesex are a good side, and every team in division two has high quality cricketers and there are no easy games.

"But we are excited to get back to champo cricket and we know that if we play to our best then we can beat anybody, and hopefully we can put on a show over the next four days."

If Northants are to get into the promotion picture then they are realistically going to have to beat Middlesex to close in on that top two before they head to Bristol to take on Gloucestershire next week.

Those matches lead into the huge Vitality Blast quarter-final against Somerset at the County Ground on September 5, and Sadler admitted: "We are all excited for the Blast quarter-final of course.

"But we know we have two massive championship matches before that, and our focus is very much on winning these next two games. It is going to be exciting two or three weeks ahead."