Lehmann salutes 'fantastic' Steelbacks after superb Edgbaston success

Lehmann’s men racked up a whopping 240 for six after winning the toss and electing to bat, piling the pressure on Birmingham Bears.

And the victory total proved far too much as the Steelbacks got a grip on the game with the ball, bowling their hosts out for 176.

It was a crucial victory for Northants, who have now won back-to-back Vitality T20 Blast matches, getting their campaign back on track after five successive defeats put a spanner in the works.

The Steelbacks are now up to second in the North Group and can make sure of a quarter-final spot with a win at Durham on Friday.

However, they may have already qualified by then as Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire both need to win both of their remaining matches to overhaul Lehmann’s side.

And the Northants boss said: “The guys were fantastic today, with the bat and with the ball in tough bowling conditions.

“It was a belter of a wicket but the guys up top played with the freedom we needed.

“The openers got us off to the flier we needed and then (Matt) Breetzke and (David) Willey were outstanding.

“Maybe we could have got 10 or 15 more if we had finished off well, but it was an excellent batting performance.

"Then the guys were excellent with the ball. Lloyd Pope bowled beautifully. He has got key wickets for us all through the tournament and George Scrimshaw took three again and is in fine form.

“Even though we lost a few games, we haven't changed the side too much so to have bounced back like this is really pleasing.

"We're also missing a few with injury so it's a really good effort. Hopefully Justin Broad will be back for the game at Durham on Friday.

“Hopefully qualification will take care of itself with other results in the next couple of days but we can only do what we can do when we go up to Durham and try to rectify the mistakes from when we played them last time."