Northamptonshire County Cricket Club in 2005 are playing their cricket in Division Two of the County Championship and Division One of the totesport League. They started the season at 12–1 to win the Division Two title. During the off season 9 players left. The season started with a thrashing dispensed to the students of Bradford/Leeds UCCE. Then they lost their first Sunday League match, a rain-affected affair against the Worcestershire Royals. The first Championship game was drawn against Leicestershire after Northants captain David Sales left the declaration too late. The second Sunday League match was won at Bristol, narrowly by 9 runs. Then they drew with Derbyshire in the Championship, before thrashing Hampshire on the Sunday. On 3 May the Steelbacks booked their place in the second round of the C&G Trophy, thrashing Denmark in Brøndby. They then lost by 10 wickets in the Championship to Yorkshire before drawing with Essex. In the fourth round of the Sunday League, they were thoroughly outplayed by Lancashire. On 17 May they beat Middlesex in the second round of the C&G Trophy, before looking on top but only getting a draw in a tour match against the Bangladeshis and losing to Somerset in the Championship despite scoring 408 in the first innings. They drew their first match in June against Lancashire, before enduring a tough last-ball loss to Middlesex in the National League, and then drawing with league leaders Durham. Their first win in June came at home, beating Gloucestershire by five wickets in the National League, and they stretched that win streak to four, beating Gloucestershire and Warwickshire, both at home, before travelling to Worcestershire and winning that game too. With three initial victories, things looked promising for Northamptonshire in the Twenty20 Cup, and despite winning only one of their last five games – against Somerset at Taunton – they still finished top of the Midlands/Wales/West Division. However, that poor patch of form continued into the other competitions. Essex beat them twice, first in the National League and then in the County Championship, and then Northamptonshire had to bow out of both knock-out competitions – losing to Yorkshire in the C&G Trophy before being defeated with two balls to spare by Somerset in the Twenty20 Cup. In the County Championship, Monty Panesar spun them to victory against Worcestershire, taking nine wickets. A no-result with Nottinghamshire sent them further adrift of Essex and