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!