India will enter the upcoming limited-overs series against England on a positive note, having beaten Northamptonshire by 10 runs after an impressive display by the bowlers in their second warm-up match on Sunday. (More Cricket News)
India had earlier defeated Derbyshire by seven wickets. After Harshal Patel lifted India from a precarious position to 149 for eight with a 36-ball 54, the visiting bowlers fired in unison to bowl out the county side for 139 with three balls to spare.
Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Yuzvendra Chahal and Harshal picked up two wickets apiece as Northamptonshire failed to overcome India's total. Earlier, asked to bat first, India were off to a disastrous start losing Sanju Samson in the very first delivery of the match, the successful bowler being skipper Joshua Cobb.
One-down bat Rahul Tripathi, too, did not last long but more trouble awaited India as pacer Brandon Glover sent back Suryakumar Yadav to leave the visitors tottering at 8/3 in the third over.
Glover two wickets in quick succession put Northamptonshire on top before a partnership of 43 runs for the fourth wicket steadied the ship. However, Ishan Kishan, having laboured to 16 off 20 balls, fell to left-arm spinner Freddie Heldreich to bring to an end the brief partnership.
That signalled the arrival of Dinesh Karthik and the seasoned campaigner straightaway got into the groove with a few boundaries and a six. However, Karthik got out after making a brisk 34 off 26 balls as India slipped to 72 for five at the start of the 12th over.
Venkatesh Iyer scored a sedate 20 off 22 balls, but it was Harshal who did the bulk of the scoring when India needed runs to put up a challenging total. Harshal struck five fours and three sixes during his breezy knock.
For Northamptonshire, Brandon Glover was the most successful bowler with figures of 3/33, while there were two wickets apiece for medium-pacer Nathan Buck and Heldreich.
Brief scores: India: 149/8 in 20 overs (Harshal Patel 54, Dinesh Karthik 34; Brandon Glover 3/33) beat Northamptonshire: 139 all out in 19.3 overs (Saif Zaib 33; Avesh Khan 2/16, Yuzvendra Chahal 2/25) by 10 runs.
