Pope and Bartlett shine as Steelbacks see off Buckinghamshire in One Day Cup warm-up

Head coach Darren Lehmann had promised that senior players would be involved in the 40-over clash, and Northants, who were captained by George Bartlett, did include the likes of James Sales, Lloyd Pope, Dom Leech and Justin Broad, who made a welcome return to action after injury.

Left-arm wrist spinner Freddie Heldreich also started for the first team for the first time since last season's Vitality Blast quarter-final against Somerset, and he was joined by youngsters, Arush Buchake, Alex Corbett, Aadi Sharma, Nirven Ramesh, Lewis Reeder and Ben Whitehouse.

Bucks started well as openers Cameron Hemp and Billy Dodds put on 69 for the first wicket, but once the breakthrough was made, the visitors' innings crumbled as they were dismissed for 160 in 35.5 overs.

Aussie leg-spinner Pope was the pick of the attack, claiming four for 19 from his eight overs, while Heldreich took two for 28 and Whitehouse two for 16.

Northants lost wickets at regular intervals in their reply as they slipped to 51 for three, but skipper Bartlett saw his side home with an unbeaten 62 from 71 balls, hitting two fours and three sixes.

Sales also played his part as he hit 34 from 67 balls as the County got home with five wickets and 25 balls to spare.

The match was the County's only warm-up clash ahead of the start of their Metro Bank One Day Cup campaign which starts on Tuesday, August 5, with a trip to Sedbergh School to play Lancashire.

The Steelbacks will be without David Willey, Saif Zaib, Ben Sanderson and George Scrimshaw for the tournament after their call-ups to play in The Hundred.

But Northants, who will be skippered by Lewis McManus, will be able to call on the likes of Luke Procter, Yuzi Chahal, Ricardo Vasconcelos and Liam Guthrie.

Ahead of the One Day Cup campaign, Northants have one more Rothesay County Championship Division Two clash to play, with Derbyshire the visitors to the County Ground on Tuesday (start 11am).