Ripley hails Northants for beating 'best squad in the league'

Ripley's men wrapped up a convincing 124-run success on the fourth day of the Specsavers County Championship Division Two clash with Nottinghamshire at the County Ground.Rory Kleinveldt was the star of the show, finishing with match figures of 13 for 98 as well as hitting a total of 91 runs over Northants' two innings.Richard Levi also impressed with a huge 115 in the second innings, but Ripley was keen to credit the whole squad, who battled hard throughout the encounter."We've managed to back up the Sussex result by playing very well at Glamorgan and now we've managed to win against the best squad in the league," Ripley said."Notts have been stretched for this game with people on international duty so it was a good opportunity for us, but they were always going to scrap hard and have still got a lot of quality players so if you beat them, you've earned your victory."We were really good over the four days."I thought our seam bowling was fantastic. I always knew they could keep us in the game."We showed a lot of character because Notts have had the sign over us and individuals stepped forward."It felt like a real good team win, even though Rory was sensational."Northants had not beaten Notts in a Championship fixture since 1995, but Kleinveldt's heroics were significant as the County cut the gap on the second-placed side to 13 points heading into next week's final fixture, at Leicestershire. Notts will travel to Sussex, while table-toppers Worcestershire host Durham."With Rory, he looked a little jaded, fourth game on the bounce, it's not something we've generally done, but he knew it was a big game and he's a great competitor," RIpley said."We couldn't get the ball out of his hand and he's got great heart."He contributed really well with the bat as well!"