They might have been light on numbers, but Hunts Under 17 Girls certainly weren’t short on quality as they made a winning start to the ECB Women’s Championship season.

The local county could only field nine players for a Friday trip to Kettering to take on Northants in Division B, Group 2. Only two of those were actual Under 17s, with the rest of the side being made up of Under 15 players and one member of the Under 13 side.

But Hunts powered to a super six-wicket success after putting their hosts in huge trouble from the start.

Bowler Kaushicaa Vaseeharan produced the outstanding figures of 5-6 as Northants were reduced to 11-6 at one stage.

They mounted something of a recovery to reach 73, but Hunts had no trouble in easing past that tally with Emilee Steel hitting 36.

Hunts were involved in a three-way Twenty20 competition the previous day when beating Surrey, but losing to Kent.