Northants ready to prove a point at Warwickshire

Northants will be eager to show their true colours when they travel to Edgbaston on Friday (start time 11am).
David Ripley takes his team to Edgbaston on Friday (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)David Ripley takes his team to Edgbaston on Friday (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)
David Ripley takes his team to Edgbaston on Friday (picture: Kirsty Edmonds)

Just a few weeks ago, David Ripley's men were well beaten by Warwickshire, losing by an innings and 48 runs at the County Ground.But they have not had to wait long for a chance to turn the tables on their conquerors, with rivalries renewed this week."We want to go to Edgbaston and play better than we did against them a few weeks ago," said County head coach David Ripley."We need to put in a better performance."That is, of course, easier said than done against a Warwickshire team that top the embryonic division two table following two wins and a draw from their opening three matches.White the league leaders have had some luck with the weather, Northants saw their favourable home fixture against Durham washed out completely due to rain at the County Ground.And that means they now sit bottom of the table, having also lost to Middlesex, on the opening day of the campaign."Durham came back very well and beat Leicester but at the time we were playing them, they'd also lost their opening game, to Kent, and we were strong at home last year so we were looking forward to it," Ripley said."But we can only control what we can and if it rains, what can we do?"We move onto the next game and just want to play a lot better than we did last time we played Warwickshire."When we played at Lord's against Middlesex, I didn't think we played as badly as the final score suggested,but the Warwickshire game, we were poor, well beaten."The fact we're playing them so close to that game is good because we can go there, play better and show we're a better team than they played a couple of weeks ago."