Northants star to miss Trophy semi-final
Wakely out of Beds side to face Staffs
ALEX Wakely will be missing from the Bedfordshire line-up as they attempt to book a place in the MCCA Trophy final.
The Northants batsman, who played in the quarter-final defeat of Buckinghamshire, made his maiden first class century at Glamorgan last week and was called into their Twenty20 side for the remainder of the group stage.
As a result of Wakely's unavailability, Oliver Clayson will be in the 11 that travel to Knypersley to face Staffordshire.
A place in the final at Durham's Chester-le-Street home is up for grabs and seamer Chris Goode believes that the visitors have every chance of progressing.
He said: "We don't fear anybody. There are some good teams out there and Staffs are one of them, but if we play how we know we can play, then we'll win the game."
And Goode attributes Beds' success in the one-day game to the versatility of their side which contains a number of all-rounders.
He added: "Everyone's got a defined role. We've got plenty of options and a good balance.
"There are three or four batters who can open, we've got extra bowlers if we need them and that makes a difference."
If the one-day campaign is going well, the exact opposite is true of the three-day format where Beds slumped to a second straight reverse at Wardown Park in Luton this week.
A side featuring nine changes from the previous weekend's cup victory was overwhelmed by Northumberland who cruised to an emphatic eight-wicket victory.
After they had been sent into bat, Dharval Naik made 63 as Beds were bowled out for 183.
Northumberland responded with 284, Mark Symington and Mark Dale notching half centuries, as debutant Zarshad Arshad took 7-100 from 31 tireless overs.
In their second innings, Clayson and Marcus Steed scored 84 and 64 respectively, but the hosts lost their final five wickets for just 23 runs on the final morning.
Set a target of 148, the north easterners had few problems reaching 151-2 with Daniel Shurben leading the way with a quickfire 97.
Beds return to Championship action on July 5-7 when they make the short trip to Hertfordshire.
MCCA Championship: Bedfordshire 183 (Naik 63) and 248 (Clayson 84, Steed 64) lost to Northumberland 284 (Symington 75, Arshad 7-100) and 151-2 (Shurben 97) by 8 wkts.
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Friday 10 February 2012
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