Two wickets in a tight spell of bowling by Rory Kleinveldt helped Northants pull off a surprising win and go to the final of the T20 Blast.
They beat Riki Wessels‘ Nottinghamshire by eight runs, restricting them to 153-9 as they chased an insecure 161.
Northants owed their total almost exclusively to Ben Duckett (84) and Alex Wakely (53) who came together at 15-3 in the third over. Among those wickets was Richard Levi, beaten by pace to be lbw to Andre Russell for 3.
Kleinveldt, who on many occasions has added impetus to the lower order, went for 0 as the tail attempted to give Wakely the strike.
Kleinveldt removed the dangerous England player Alex Hales for 0 in the second over and later removed Russell, who was in full swing on 38 off 18. He conceded just 24 off his four overs, and worked well in tandem with Ben Sanderson, who took 2-21.
Northants will now play Keaton Jennings‘ Durham, after they beat Yorkshire by seven runs in an another low-scoring game. Ben Stokes was the main man for Durham, scoring 56 off 36 balls (4×4, 3×6) in their offering of 156-6.
