Sanderson’s pride as he passes 400-wicket landmark for Northants
Ben Sanderson was full of pride after claiming the 400th first-class wicket of his Northants career at Leicestershire on Saturday.
The 36-year-old is playing in his first game of the season after recovering from a knee injury, but it was like the veteran seamer had never been away as he produced a stunning spell of bowling to help reduce Leicestershire to 96 for six in their second innings.
Sanderson, who took three wickets in the Foxes' first innings, claimed five for 51 to keep alive Northants' hopes of victory in the Rothesay County Championship clash at Grace Road.
Darren Lehmann's side will go into Sunday trailing by 209 runs after being bowled out for just 191 in reply to the Foxes' 304 all out.
On what was a memorable day for the Sheffield-born seamer, he also passed the 1,000 first-class runs barrier for Northants on his 108th appearance, with his innings of 18 helping to lift the team from a precarious 87 for six.
The dismissal of Sol Budinger for 39 saw Sanderson bring up the 400 in County colours, and he said: "I felt like I was a bit undercooked with my bowling in the first innings but now hopefully I’m back to my best and ready to kick on for the rest of the season.
"I’m very pleased I was able to get to that 400-wicket mark, which is an achievement to be proud of.”
Looking at the game situation, Sanderson also believes Saturday afternoon's fightback has got them right back in the hunt for a first win of the season, having looked dead and buried as they went into lunch six wickets down and trailing by more than 200.
“If we look at the game from the start, we probably didn’t get the luck in the first innings that we had in the second," he said.
"We didn’t get the edges and fair play to Rishi Patel, who hung around and got his hundred and played very well. “But if somebody had offered us this position at the start of the game we would have taken it.
"Hopefully we can come in Sunday and knock over and we can get batting again. It’s probably a 250 pitch and we need one of our top order to come in and make a score.
“Myself and Harry (Conway) were able to hang around a bit at the end of our innings when their bowlers were having to come back for a third spell. It kept us a bit more in the fight."
Leicestershire Logan van Beek, who claimed four for 47 in Northants' first innings, will resume day three on 10 not out , and he knows every run is going to be crucial.
“I’m happy to be in our position in the game," said van Beek. "A 100-run first-innings lead was crucial, because that was a very tough last hour and a half of cricket.
“With the divots in the pitch and the grass a bit longer this time, towards the end of the day it created a bit more havoc.
"As a batter, trying to find ways to score is tough and credit to them they bowled really well. So we’re just happy to have been there at the end and on Sunday every run is going to be crucial.
“The first hour after the heavy roller has been on the pitch as a bowler you feel you aren’t doing that much, but once you get work into the ball and divots start to appear you start to get more movement.
"And what we did well was that we stopped them going anywhere in terms of putting on runs, and then when we got one wicket, we’d get three or four in a hurry.
“It is the kind of pitch where as a batter there is always a ball with your name on it."
Quotes courtesy of Jon Culley