CRICKET: South African Suffolk all rounder Andrew Hall said his side should not feel disappointed after coming so close to victory. Hall grabbed four wickets and took a superb catch to take Suffolk to the brink of a shock win.

CRICKET

SOUTH African Suffolk all rounder Andrew Hall said his side should not feel disappointed after coming so close to victory.

Hall grabbed four wickets and took a superb catch to take Suffolk to the brink of a shock win. He said: "We should have nothing to feel bad about and should be really proud of our efforts. Our guys did brilliantly and I can't see Northants being too pleased as it was not a great performance from their side."

The conditions made it very tough for both sides and Hall added: "When the fourth ball of the innings comes out of nowhere and almost hits you in the face you get worried. I don't think anyone that batted found it easy to score and after the rain break the ball began to swing."

Man of the match Kevin Shaw hit 34 not out and said: "When you get into the situation I was facing the key is always to make sure you bat out the full 50 overs.

"Reaching 128 gave us a target to bowl at and a chance of winning. We would have certainly taken that at the time I went into bat."

Northants skipper Mike Hussey was full of praise for Suffolk. He said: "We wanted to come here and win quite comfortably but we have had to fight hard in the end.

"We didn't know much about Suffolk but they stuck to their task and played the conditions very well. There were a few heart flutters especially when we lost four wickets in a row but I was always backing our side.

"Russell (Warren) showed a cool head under pressure and Darren Cousins was a good man to be out there at the end."

Cousins said: "It was very hard to score runs but if we had been batting first we would have been aiming for 180-200.

"In these situations you can only be professional as you are on a hiding to nothing, if you take wickets or score runs then you are expected to."

Suffolk's director of cricket Kevin Brooks said it was a good team effort after a poor start.

"It was a fantastic recovery from 43 for five in difficult conditions and we have done well to take it right to the wire.

"We had been indebted to a cameo innings from Kevin Shaw and I am really pleased for him. He has had a couple of difficult years with injuries and he had worked really hard to get back into fitness."