​Northamptonshire head coach Darren Lehmann insists there is no issue with his team’s form in the T20 Blast after they moved into the quarter-finals. The Steelbacks had a rough finish to the group stage, losing three of their last four Central & West Group games, including a five-wicket defeat to Warwickshire on Sunday. Yet Northants still topped the group comfortably, earning a home quarter-final against Gloucestershire on Wednesday thanks to nine wins and 36 points—the most of any side in the competition.
“It’s been excellent; we’ve won nine games, lost two of the last three, and that can happen,” Lehmann told BBC Radio Northampton. “We’ve been rotating the squad to ensure everyone gets a game in case of injuries. We’ve all managed to get through it pretty well.” He added that the team usually plays a settled side, and they benefited from that approach in the latter part of the group stage, even though the results elsewhere didn’t always go their way. “There’s no problem. It’s not going to change how we want to play come Wednesday.”
Northants will chase a second consecutive appearance in the T20 finals day when they host Gloucestershire, who finished third in their group and eight points behind the Steelbacks. Lehmann stressed that group-stage results carry little weight now. “Come Wednesday, results don’t matter. It doesn’t matter where you finish on the table,” the former Australian international said. “What matters is how you perform on Wednesday in front of a big crowd. We’ve just got to win that game and then focus on the next one.” He added that this approach aligns with what the squad has planned for the Blast campaign from the outset. “It’s pretty much how we’ve planned the whole Blast campaign, to be perfectly honest.”
The Steelbacks have twice claimed the T20 Blast title, in 2013 and 2016, but have not reached a final since their last success a decade ago. The quarter-final match against Gloucestershire is scheduled for Wednesday, with kick-off at 17:00 local time, following an earlier schedule of 16:30 BST for other games that day.
The matches set for Wednesday include: Utilita Bowl: Hampshire Hawks vs. Essex; Trent Bridge: Nottinghamshire Outlaws vs. Surrey; Headingley: Yorkshire vs. Somerset; and cinch County Ground: Northamptonshire Steelbacks vs. Gloucestershire (17:00). These fixtures will determine who advances to the knockout stages of the T20 Blast as the competition progresses toward crowning its champion.