Head coach Lehmann 'pretty pleased' with Steelbacks improvement in One Day Cup

Head coach Darren Lehmann has declared himself happy with Northants Steelbacks' performances on the Metro Bank One Day Cup, despite the team failing to claim a top three finish and reach the knockout stages.

Tuesday's three-wicket defeat at the hands of Gloucestershire ended the County's hopes of progression, and was a fifth loss in eight Group A matches as they finished seventh of nine teams.

But that is a definite improvement on the dismal 2025 campaign that saw the Steelbacks win just once, and also better than 2024 when the team claim two group victories.

You have to go back to 2016 for the last time Northants reached the last eight of the 50-over competition and it is a format that has proved problematic for a long time.

At the start of the season, Lehmann, who coached Australia to 50-over World Cup glory in 2015, demanded an upswing in fortunes, and he believes he got that, despite seven of his squad missing the competition due to The Hundred.

He also lost Justin Broad for the whole campaign through injury, but there genuine positives to take, particularly the batting form of skipper Nathan McSweeney and George Bartlett.

The pair both hit six half-centuries in eight matches to both top the 400-run mark, and there were other aspects of his team's efforts that pleased the head coach as well, particularly the fact that every match, even those that were lost, his team competed.

Over the course of the tournament, Tiaan Louw made his first team debut and players such as Aadi Sharma, Stuart van der Merwe, Dom Leach and Gus Miller, who scored a maiden senior century, all gained more valuable top level experience.

"I thought we played well overall," said Lehmann, talking to BBC Northampton.

"Nathan had an unbelievable tournament, George was excellent, the young kids got an opportunity and they are learning things.

"We were down to 12 players on Tuesday, and we won three games and it could have been five or six and we could have qualified.

"It was a tight group and that is pleasing, because last year we won one game, just, and in the rest we were belted.

"We have played and bowled a lot better, so that is the learnings for us, because if we continue to do that we will win more games of cricket than not.

"A pleasing thing is that everybody got an opportunity."

David Willey, Ben Sanderson, Saif Zaib, James Sales, George Scrimshaw, Louis Kimber and Calvin Harrison were all lost to the Hundred, and Lehmann added: "Nobody expected us to compete with the side we had, but I was really proud of them.

"That's the game of cricket, sometimes you get beaten by better sides, and more often than not that happened and they beat us, but they had to work hard to beat us.

"We didn't give up, and that is a pleasing thing with the group.

"I thought everybody contributed at some stage in the format, and now we get all the troops back from The Hundred and get playing in Championship cricket again.

"But in terms of the whole Metro Bank series, I am pretty pleased.

"I know people might think that's a bit weird because we haven't qualified, but for us, with the troops we had missing and the guys who got experience, it was pretty pleasing overall.

"The players competed well, and that's not easy because you are asking these guys to play above a skill level.

"They all have skill and take the game on at certain times and understand what they are doing, and they will learn quickly.

"We have seen a marked improvement in this format from last year, but there are no excuses.

"We still weren't good enough and got beaten by better teams, but those teams had to work really hard to beat us and that is important."

Northants now have a short break from playing before returning to action next Thursday when they travel to Old Trafford to play Lancashire in the Rothesay County Championship Division Two.