Durham match report

After the earliest start to a county season on record, it was perhaps inevitable that one of the first few games would fall victim to the weather, and this game against Durham proved to be that. While it looked at one stage that Durham were certs to win it, and even for a brief few moments that Middlesex were going to snatch it, the weather, which put paid to the first day as well as large spells of the second and fourth meant that the spoils were indeed shared on the final afternoon. I must admit that when Onions had ripped through us once more on the final morning that I'd given up on the game and had gone off to do something else, so was pleasantly surprised to see that somehow Simpson and The-Lambeth-Lara (C) had put together a partnership, and with rain falling, apparently saved the draw. Thinking nothing of it until much later on that evening, where upon I checked my Twitter, imagine my amazement to see that with Durham needing 130 to win, a) they'd managed to get back on, and b) Middlesex nearly won it!

Anyway, on with the match itself, and again we failed (twice) with the bat. With Strauss coming in for Rayner, there were thoughts that this extra bat would help bolster the lineup and make us less prone to collapse, but at 2-3, and 28-4, this certainly was not the case. The England captain himself managed to bag a second ball duck when Onions bowled him through the gate, and it didn't get much better from there. Admittedly it is tough to bat at this time of the year, and we're hardly the only county to have struggled when batting, but it might be nice to eventually score a few runs. 188 all out, which was with a bit of late-order resistance (as usual) meant no bonus points, which is again disappointing.

One bright spark was Neil Dexter. After just 16 runs in the first two games, Dex stepped back from his role of captaincy, and went and made a gutsy 65 in very tough conditions on Friday afternoon. It may not have been the Dexter of old, but hopefully the confidence given to him by those runs will see him get back to the batsman that we all know very soon. John Simpson's display as well was very encouraging - after a few failures from him he was due some scores, and an impressive 25 not out first up was joined by a backs-against-the-wall 47 when all seemed lost on the final afternoon. Simmo is an excellent bat, and seeing as there isn't anyone with any experience lining up to replace him, it's important that the keeper does start to contribute, which he has started to here.

Action shot of Tim Murtagh batting...



If I was to sum up the bowling effort, it would be that they started badly, turned it around, and then let it slip right at the end. After Finn and Murtagh bowled a pile of junk just before lunch on Day 3, allowing Durham to race out of the blocks, they got their acts together after the interval in one of the weirdest sessions of county cricket I've ever seen. Durham added 165 runs, but lost 6 wickets, in a session that certainly got the game moving. The post new ball figthtback has been something we've seen in all three games, which does show good fight, but in all three games it's allowed the opposition to get off to a great start with the bat. Suppiah and Trescothick smashed Murtagh and Collymore around Taunton, Davies and Rudolph put on 85 for Surrey, and Smith and Di Venuto helped themselves as Finn and Murtagh chucked up a lot of freebies on Saturday morning. (Although Finn did make me look pretty stupid when I was commentating on BBC London...) It was very poor cricket, and I'm sure Gus and Richard Johnson will be working hard to ensure that that's the last of it in terms of wasting the new ball. In Division One you can't afford to give teams any advantage, and to waste the new ball (which as we've seen in the excellent spells of Philander and Onions is the best time to strike) is criminal at this level - another harsh lesson learnt. However, the fightback was encouraging, and to peg Durham back to 194-9 shows the character of this side when many others would have let their heads drop. (Although the record 10th wicket partnership between Borthwick and Onions was not ideal...)

So another game gone, and a draw with Durham is certainly not the worst result in the world - a result that many Middlesex fans (myself included) would have taken before proceedings got underway. And a result that everyone would have taken when 8 down just after lunch with Durham sniffing victory! The boys have a week off now, which means they'll be dodging rain clouds on the golf course, and I have a few exams, so that'll probably be the last you hear from me until the Worcestershire game. Come on the Middle!

Squad named for Durham game...

... and interestingly, after this news earlier this afternoon, Neil Dexter's been named in the squad (which makes my assumption that he wouldn't be look very foolish, and confirms that I know absolutely nothing about what's really going on at Middlesex!).

The 13 man squad itself is:

Chris Rogers (c)
Gareth Berg
Steven Crook
Joe Denly
Neil Dexter
Steven Finn
Dawid Malan
Tim Murtagh
Ollie Rayner
Sam Robson
Toby Roland-Jones
John Simpson (wk)
Andrew Strauss

Corey Collymore is missing out (as predicted, I had to get something right eventually) as part of the 'rotation policy', but chances are he wouldn't have made the team either way. Gareth Berg has been struggling with a chest infection, so Steven Crook is in as cover for him, but we'll find out tomorrow morning whether he's fit to play.

From what I see, the only selection dilemma is between Neil Dexter and Ollie Rayner. We will go with four seamers (as usual), with either Crook or Berg (fitness depending) joining Murtagh, Roland-Jones and Finn, with Strauss coming into the top order. So the question is whether they go with the extra batsman (Dex) or the spinner (Rayner)?

There's a case for leaving out both. The ball hasn't spun much in this very early part of the season, and seeing as Ollie was only required to bowl six overs against Surrey, it would make sense to strengthen the batting, which has been rather shaky thus far. Conversely, with Dexter having handed over the captaincy, will he be right mentally to suddenly go and make runs? Or would the release of not being required to captain take the pressure of his shoulders and allow him to return to form?

It's a tough one, but I reckon that they'll go with Dexter. Having named him in the squad, they're going to pick him (otherwise they'd have let him slip away and play for the 2nds) so as such he may get a game. Plus, the batting needs all the strength it can get, and as handy as Ollie Rayner is, I think we'd all prefer the safety-net of Dexter at six with Simpson at seven and Berg at 8.

Whatever way Middlesex go, it'll be a tough game, as Durham are a very good team. However, they did lose their only game of the season last week to Notts, and after Sunday morning, we'll have a lot of momentum to take into the game, which will hopefully help us massively. With overcast conditions forecast, and the pitches playing quite tough so far, the toss will be massive, especially considering the damage Durham's formidable bowling attack could do if asked to field first. Hopefully Chris Roger's tossing (careful) will be better than Dexy's (0 from 2 this year) and he can help Middlesex to a second win in a row. Come on the Middle!

Dexter stands down as captain

Clicked onto the Middlesex website this morning and was shocked to see this piece of news. While there were a few rumblings about Dexy's captaincy, I don't think anyone really saw him standing down now coming.

First - to clarify what the news is. Dexy is to take a break from four-day captaincy to focus on his batting. He still remains as club captain (so would captain any 40 over or T20 games) but for the time being Chris Rogers is taking over as captain of the four-day team.

Am not sure if Neil is going to actually be in the team for the next couple of week / tomorrow, but the fact that this news has come out suggests that he won't be in the team. Sadly, his batting form (as I alluded to in the last blog) just hasn't been up to it at the back end of last year or in the start of this, and either Neil has decided, or it's been decided for him, that he isn't justifying his place in the team, so he's likely to miss out (though that will be confirmed or not when the squad for tomorrow is announced).

It's a shame for Neil that things have got to this, especially after what I thought was a brilliant game as skipper last week. Gus Fraser even mentioned Dexy's tactical astuteness in his review of the game, saying "I thought Neil Dexter captained the team superbly. His tactics on the final morning were excellent. He picked the right time to have the field in and the right time to have fielders saving four. His introduction of Toby Roland-Jones was inspired too. It was Toby who dismissed Rory Hamilton-Brown in his first over", so any issues are clearly down to matters other than his skipper-ship.

In the short term, I would guess that Strauss would come in 'like-for-like' as a batsman for Dexter, although they may decide to go with the structure (6 specialist batsmen, keeper and 4 seamers) that I floated in the last blog, with Adam London / Paul Stirling taking Dex's role.

In the long term however, things could be tough for Dex. Once a captain gives anyone else a go it's tough to recover, and if Bucky does well then he may well get the nod full-time. And if whoever takes Dexy' batting place does well, then it could well be tough to even break into the team, let alone get back as captain.

It will be a time of upheaval for the rest of the boys with the captain suddenly going, so hopefully they can pull together and take the momentum of Sunday morning into the game against Durham.

Squeaky bum time as Middlesex beat Surrey

Wowsers - what a game. What a match, and what a morning - a finish that will live long in the memory of Middlesex fans. With Surrey just one hit away from winning the game, Jade Dernbach lobbed one up in the air, and after a nervous few seconds of waiting, Sam Robson stepped forward from nowhere to claim the catch, and seal the victory for Middlesex, by just three runs.

A massive, massive performance from the team, all the way through the game - a game that was a brilliant advertisement for county cricket. Played on a sporting pitch that offered a bit for both bat and ball (nowhere near as bad as Surrey are making out), there were some high quality performances from both teams throughout, but it was Middlesex who held their nerve to record victory by such a narrow margin. Anyone who was at Lord's this morning will have no doubts that the county game is in rude health at the moment.

Anyway, onto the main talking points from the game - the main one being the pitch. While Adams and Hamilton-Brown do have a point that the pitch did offer a bit to the bowler (and one nameless member of the Middlesex team did tell me that it probably could have done with a little less grass), from watching three days of the game, I don't think that it was an 'unfair' pitch. Given that we're in the second week of April, and that much of the game was played with overcast skies, batting is always going to be tough, and for Surrey to come out and publicly slate it does smack of sour grapes. Both teams have to bat twice on it, and of course, if Hamilton-Brown felt it was going to deteriorate so badly he probably should have elected to bat first when he won the toss. And it was the sort of pitch that if you dig in and stick around, you can make some runs, as Malan, Robson, and Hamilton-Brown all showed. Yes, it was a low scoring game, but it wasn't 33 plays 18.

The ebb and flow of the game was superb, and again, the fight showed by Middlesex was very heartening. After Dernbach ripped through the middle order (who have now failed for a concerning fourth time in a row), Middlesex were 108-6 and in tatters, but a strong rearguard action from the patient and watchful Malan and the #lambethlara (copyright me) Murtagh, plus support from TRJ and Collymore pushed us up to 256, and two important batting points. With every run being crucial, that effort from the tail-end, for the second game in a row, was excellent. And with the ball, when Surrey looked to be on top, somehow we'd find a way of wresting back the initiative, first with Ollie Rayner getting the breakthrough with Rudolph stumped, and then the captain Dexter bringing himself on to bowl and excellent spell and take 3-23. And then of course, when Surrey were four down overnight on Saturday, Middlesex somehow managed to take the final six wickets just in the nick of time and win the game.

On a less positive note, the batting side has failed now for four innings in a row. While the top four of Robson, Denly, Rogers and Malan all seem in good nick, and have made good starts in both games, the form of the lower-middle order is becoming quite worrying. Captain Dex at 5 has made 15 runs from 4 innings so far, John Simpson's made 26, and Gareth Berg has made 20. We've collapsed in all four innings of the season, which is not a good thing at all. Berg and Simpson will both remain in the team due to the other strings to their bow (Bergy for his bowling, Simmo for his keeping), but the question is how long Dex can afford to rely on his captaincy to keep him in the team. With Strauss coming back next week there is a school of thought that Dex should drop out to make way, and looking at his form, both this season and the end of last, you can see why he's vulnerable. However, for my money, dropping the captain would be a foolish move, and you sense Dexy just needs one knock of any note just for a bit of confidence, which he looks like he's desperately lacking at the crease. As a captain this year I think he's been superb - making the right bowling changes at the right time, and getting the fields pretty much bang on (although I probably would have put a midwicket in when Maynard and Hamilton-Brown kept picking up easy singles, and I would also have had a third man in for Dernbach with only four needed and the possibility that an outside edge wins Surrey the game!), but he is in the team primarily as a batsman, so he does need some runs quickly to quieten the naysayers. Century next week please Neil!

So, with Durham starting on Thursday, and Finn and Strauss available, the question is who should they come in for - if at all? Well, if you have players of their class available they should undoubtedly come in, but working out who to drop will be a tough one. There are no obvious candidates for who should miss out, which means Gus will have a bit of a headache trying to piece together the team. Were I in charge, I'd probably drop Ollie Rayner and Corey Collymore - Ollie because we haven't needed a spinner massively in the first two games (Olls only bowled the six overs this game), and with it seaming about he's fairly redundant, so we may as well add the extra batter in Strauss - and Corey, because of it's difficult to drop any of Berg, Murtagh and TRJ, who have all excelled so far, so Corey (who it must be said has also started the season well, but not quite with that spark of the other three seamers) being the unlucky man to make way for Finn.

All of that means I'd rejig the batting order a bit, dropping Robson down to four (which is a shame as he is an excellent opener, but you do have to accommodate the England captain), meaning my team would be:

1) Denly
2) Strauss
3) Rogers
4) Robson
5) Malan
6) Dexter (c)
7) Simpson (wk)
8) Berg
9) Lara
10) Roland-Jones
11) Finn

The extra batsman just gives us that little bit of a safety net after the shakes of the middle order thus far, and that seam quartet is as strong as any that will play county cricket this year. Durham will be a tough ask, but if Middlesex can show the same amount of guts that they did this morning - anything's possible!


And if you weren't lucky enough to have been at Lord's today (or just want to relive it) - here's the highlights from Day 4!

A few harsh lessons learnt...

So the first game of the season has been played, and sadly Middlesex have lost. While in the end Somerset only needed to chase 72, in reality the game was much closer, and Middlesex will feel very disappointed to have only picked up 3 points, but at the same time, fairly pleased in the knowledge that they can compete at the highest level.

The game was always going to be a struggle after losing the toss and being inserted on a miserable day in Taunton. With visibility poor and low overcast skies, the stage was set for Vernon Philander, who certainly did not disappoint. His opening spell with the new ball on Thursday afternoon was as good a spell as will be bowled anywhere in the world this year, whether domestic or international, and was simply stunning. His third ball was just too good for poor old Sam Robson, who did well to get a faint edge through to the keeper, and he consistently troubled both Rogers and new-boy Denly. However, the fight shown by those two was incredibly pleasing, and they really battled hard as both Philander, and the equally as impressive Kirby stormed in for over an hour. We all know just how good Rogers is, but it was great to see the new signing Denly show his class in his first Middlesex innings, with a 73 which deserved to be a lot more. If he carries on like that, we really have got a gem of a player on our hands.

After reaching stumps on a rain reduced first day at 118/4, a mini-collapse ensued leaving us at 150/7, and not much chance of making a decent score, with 250ish seeming par. Cometh the hour, cometh the Lambeth Lara, and Tim Murtagh's incredibly timely 45 was unlucky to be ended after a "yes, no, maybe, sorry" exchange with Toby Roland-Jones that saw Murts on his backside in the middle of the pitch. While we missed out on the second batting point at 246 all out, it was a really good rally from the tail-end, with Rayner, Murts and TRJ all chipping in, and showing good fight. It was the sort of situation that not that long ago would have seen us fold to 155 all out, so those extra runs in a low-scoring game were very handy indeed.

Disappointingly, while Somerset started brilliantly with the new ball, Middlesex were godawful and completely wasted it, allowing Somerset to get off to a flier. While there was a quick flurry of wickets that saw the home county reduced to 103-3, the overall standard of bowling in the second evening was fairly average, and not good enough by half at this level. Gareth Berg was the pick of the bowlers, but ultimately he was the best of a bad bunch. However, the next morning, Middlesex really did start bowling well, and deserved to get Somerset out for less than the 350 that they eventually made, mostly thanks to a 150 partnership between Nick Compton (who got out for 99, lol) and Craig Kieswetter. Corey Collymore recovered from a rubbish start to end up with 3-66, and it all seemed fairly respectable.

However, the main difference between Division Two and Division One is the amount of chances that you're given. In Div 2, the intensity wasn't as high, and even if there was a drop or a missed run-out, another one wouldn't be far away, so it wouldn't hurt too much. Here, Middlesex had the chance to get Kieswetter out on 0 (dropped by the usually immaculate Ollie Rayner in the slips) and on 6 (where a terrible mix-up between Compton and Kieswetter saw both batsmen standing side by side at the same end, but a worse mix up by Middlesex meant they were able to get away with it), and were made to rue it as the pair racked up the match-winning partnership. Who knows what would have happened had Buttler come in with his side well behind and wobbling, just as Middlesex were seizing the initiative?

The batting in the second innings was incredibly disappointing after Rogers (who made 50) and Robson both got out after a solid partnership on the fourth morning, and the loss of 9-70 smacks of a side who threw it away when they should have been able to hold on for the draw. However, I think the concerns over the over-rate (Middlesex went into the fourth innings 3 overs behind and facing a 3 point penalty) may have had something to do with it, as thoughts were very muddled at the end as nobody knew whether to attack or defend. And to be fair, 19-year-old George Dockrell did bowl very well, taking 6-27 from 20 overs. The long and the short of it meant that our third innings score of 175 meant Somerset needed just 72 for victory, and despite a Gareth Berg induced wobble (the cidermen were 44-4 at one point), a quickfire 37 from Hildreth saw them over the line just before the clouds closed in and the points were shared.

It's always disappointing to lose a game, and more so when going into the fourth day we had a very real chance of saving the draw, but the fight shown by the team was very pleasing. We won't have to face a display of bowling all season better than Vernon Philander, and the fact that Denly, Rogers (twice) and Robson all stood up to him and kept him out shows that there's a fair bit of grit about our top order. And while the bowlers were on the wrong end of things on Friday afternoon, they came back strongly for the third day and bowled a hell of a lot better. That bouncebackability will really come in handy over the course of the season, and the strength of the team mentally shows some positive signs.

On a more negative note, the middle order didn't contribute much with the bat. With only six out and out batsmen (and that includes John Simpson at 6 who averages 33 in FC cricket), somebody really has to make runs, and that didn't happen this week. It will be interesting to see how they rejig things if / when Strauss or Morgan end up in the side. And the fielding wasn't quite up to Somerset's very high standards - when they needed to hit the stumps they would, but on the three run-out chances, we missed, and we dropped far too many catches. When chances are so hard to come by, we can ill afford to let them go.

All in all, a tough game, but we can learn a lot from it. Chris Rogers has got his one brainless dismissal out of the way this season, and hopefully the bowlers will have worked out what went wrong with the new ball - and judging by their performance the next day, they've already started to correct it. The next game is the old enemy from south of the river, and I'd guess that we'd name the same squad, but probably without Adam London. Ten out of the eleven will be the same, with the only potential change being Steven Crook in for Ollie Rayner if Gus and Dexy think that the pitch won't spin, but I'd keep it as it is. Surrey are on a high after beating Sussex, and with the brown trouser brigade likely to be relegation rivals (despite some so-called experts bizarrely tipping Rory's chav army for the title), beating them here is very important. Let's hope we see yet another trouncing of the boys from the Oval!


(PS - have written a round-up of the last week of county fixtures for All Out Cricket - go and have a look!)

Somerset v Middlesex squads announced

So here we are, the first official squad of the season. And this is it - the 13 men chosen to valiantly represent Middlesex against Somerset at Taunton in the four day game starting tomorrow...

Neil Dexter (captain)
Gareth Berg
Corey Collymore
Steven Crook
Joe Denly
Adam London
Dawid Malan
Tim Murtagh
Ollie Rayner
Sam Robson
Chris Rogers
Toby Roland-Jones
John Simpson

It's pretty much as expected. In fact, it's totally as expected. The twelve who took on Durham uni at the weekend are all selected, with Joe Denly added to the squad after recovering from his injury. While he wasn't fit enough to play in the uni game, he did have a bat in the abandoned game against Northampton yesterday (a game that completely flew under my radar), so I presume he's passed his fitness test and will play, probably coming in for Adam London at the top of the order.

The only other dilemma is how the bowlers will shape up. Toby Roland-Jones and Steven Crook have both had very good pre-seasons, and while I thought Corey Collymore would have been first choice, the fact that both TRJ and the Crooky Monster were picked ahead of him for the uni game suggests that they're higher up in Gus' pecking order at the moment. Gareth Berg, who didn't bowl in that game, has confirmed (via the ever reliable source of Twitter) that he's "definitely" fit to bowl, which helps the balance of the team no end, and allows us to go in with four seamers.

As the days have ticked down to this game I have become more and more pessimistic, as Somerset have a ridiculously strong batting order (Trescothick, Kieswetter, Compton, Hildreth, Buttler), and while they'll miss Alfonso Thomas at the IPL, they're being boosted by the arrival of Vernon Philander, who as we know, has had a decent start to his test career. The forecast for Taunton suggests it will be fairly overcast on all four days, with a possibility of rain on Thursday, so hopefully we'll be able to get the season off and running with a positive result. And hopefully we won't be praying for rain on Sunday afternoon!

The wait is over, we're finally back in Division One, and now let's stay there!

Middlesex v Durham MCCU round-up

So the first first-class game of Middlesex's season has been played, and has ended in a draw, with neither side able to force a victory in the three days of the game. Merchant Taylor's School, Britain's newest first class ground was the scene for another record as Sam Robson became the first ever March centurion in this country - a statistical quirk caused by the early start of the season, but a very nice one at that.

Middlesex won the toss and had a bat, with the only change to the side that I thought being Steven Crook playing ahead of Corey Collymore. Was surprised that Corey wasn't given a go seeing as he's likely to be first choice, and that he hasn't had millions of overs under his belt in pre-season, but there you go! Maybe he's further down the pecking order than I thought. The other thing I got wrong was that Adam London opened alongside Robson - a position he may well play in at Taunton, but he'll miss out if Joe Denly is passed fit.

Anyway, with the bat first innings, Middlesex stuck up 368/9 declared, with the highlight being a fifth first class ton for Sam Robson at the top of the order. Dawid Malan continued his good pre-season with a century, and Gareth Bergarelli also passed fifty, to go with his 100* in the intra-squad friendly last week. More worrying was Rogers (in his first knock in England since September) and Dexter getting blobs, but a half-century for Dexy in the second innings showed he's in some sort of form, and seeing as Rogers has come straight out of the Australian domestic season (where it was only a couple of weeks ago he made 124 at the WACA against Western Australia), and given the class of the man, I don't think there are any issues for him going into the first game.

Indeed, of the 6 batsmen, all of them seem in relatively good form, with Simpson making an unbeaten 49 in the second innings as well. Indeed, Tim Murtagh's carried his good form with the bat from last year (well, his final knock of the year at Grace Road) with a 26 ball 31. He does take his batting seriously (ish) and it would be good to see him make a few runs down the order this year.

With the ball, first innings Middlesex skittled the students for 124, with Murtagh taking a wicket in the first over, followed by 2-50 for TRJ, 2-18 for Rayner and eye-catchingly 4-16 for Steven Crook. I wouldn't have had Crook down as first choice ahead of this game, but after an impressive pre-season on the back of an excellent breakthrough summer last year, it's certainly given Gus something to think about when he sits down to name his first Championship team of the year on Wednesday evening. Crook really does offer that extra yard of pace to Murtagh, Roland-Jones, and even Collymore, and that could give him the edge when it comes to selection.

The only concern on the bowling front is the mysterious absence of Gareth Berg - nothing official from the club but the word on the street (Twitter) says that Bergy 'has a slight niggle but should be OK to bowl on Thursday'. Have no idea how correct this is, but if I hear anything else then I'll let you know!

After having another bat, Dexter declared overnight setting Durham an unlikely 386 to win, and they never really went after it, preferring to bat out the day to save the draw, which annoyingly they did quite comfortably. The experts say that the difference between Division One and Division Two is the quality of the batting, and it might be slightly worrying if we're only able to take three wickets in a day - especially if those players are only students. Murts, TRJ and Rayner took one apiece as Durham ended at 199/3 (from 83 overs), and hands were shaken at 5 to confirm the draw.

It's a shame that we couldn't force a win, but it's best that we get those annoying days where teams hang on against us out of the way at this stage of the season, rather than when it really matters. The team now head on to Taunton, where the fun really starts!

Speaking of Somerset, they took on Cardiff Uni, and their batsmen (Nick Compton and James Hildreth at least) look in ominous form, with both picking up big double centuries as they combined for a mammoth 450 run partnership. I'm all for games between counties and universities, but these shouldn't really hold first class status, with both Compton and Hildreth's averages taking a very handy boost. Either way, they're both in good nick ahead of the game starting Thursday, and of course, if we didn't know already, their partnership shows just how hard it is to take wickets at Taunton, and the importance of knuckling down once you're set. The ideal plan for the game is to bat first, put on an imposing total, and hope to bowl them out twice in the four days, but the smart money could well be on the draw. If it's any consolation, Somerset's bowlers didn't fare a great deal better, with Cardiff Uni declaring twice as that game also ebbed into a bore draw.

With the end of this game is the end of pre-season - and the start of the season proper! Am going down to Taunton early on Thursday morning, and am already very excited to see Middlesex take their bow in the first division. Come on the Middle!