Sadler making no excuses and has 'no complaints' as Steelbacks' Blast dream is ended

The Steelbacks' preparations for the last-eight clash were hampered by injury and international commitments, with the biggest losses being those of opening batter Matt Breetzke and veteran all-rounder Ravi Bopara.

Breetzke, who was fourth overall in the runscoring charts after the group stages, was unable to play as he is captaining South Africa A in a One Day International series against Sri Lanka A, while Bopara damaged a finger playing the Max60 tournament in the Caribbean at the end of August.

Northants were also unable to secure the return of world-class white ball all-rounder Sikandar Raza, while teenage fast bowler Raphy Weatherall was ruled out after suffering a stress fracture in his back.

But Sadler insists they were all absences the Steelbacks were capable of overcoming, and that he had 'no complaints' after his side were beaten by 17 runs.

"It has been challenging, but that is why we have a squad," said the head coach when asked about the pre-match disruption.

"We have a lot of depth, we had players coming in and we still had a very strong side out there.

"We might have had a couple of people that weren't available, but if you look down our list I believe we had a team that could have won, as any one of those 11 is a match-winner."

And he added: "It is what it is and that is sport sometimes, players are always in and out through form and injury and stuff like that, so I have no complaints about any of it.

"We picked a side we felt could win, and we still had some highly-skilled players who weren't picked for the game, but it wasn't to be."

Northants' white ball season may now be over, but they still have three more County Championship Division Two matches to play, starting with Monday's home clash with Derbyshire at the County Ground.

The match is a battle between the bottom two, with second-from-bottom Northants holding a seven-point advantage over their visitors.

The County have yet to win a four-day match this season, and Sadler is keen to put that terrible record to bed.

"We have three massive games coming up and we want to try and win all three games," said the head coach.

"We will have to take stock after Friday night and let the emotion die down a little bit, and we will then plan for those games."