Star-buck in Liverpool

Going away to the county champions is always a tough ask, and while Lancashire have had a tough start to the season (they are yet to pick up a victory in the championship) it was obvious that this would be a difficult week against strong opposition.

After losing yet another toss (incredibly that's six out of six lost now this year), Lancashire went in for a bat, and thanks to Ashwell Prince, made 144 on what looked to be a batsman's paradise. With the sun out and the pitch flat, it was a tough task for the bowlers, but they all plugged away manfully. With Strauss and Finn away with England, Morgan came in for his first Championship game in nearly two years, which mean that the balance of the team (six bats, keeper and four bowlers) remained the same, but it could be argued that on that pitch we were a bowler light.

After Lancashire put on an imposing 392, disappointingly the batsmen didn't quite get it going. Most of the top order batsmen made starts (only Rogers and Morgan of the top 8 made less than 19), but nobody went on to make the telling score that Prince had for the hosts. The batting has improved since the start of the season (which with the improvement in the weather is to be expected) but concerns still linger, as does the propensity to collapse at any given point. In many ways, this makes the rearguard action in the second innings all the more impressive, as it certainly hasn't been the norm so far this year.

Middlesex were bowled out midway through the third day short of the follow-on target, but Lancashire chose not to enforce, instead chasing quick runs which they hoped would set up victory. While tactically this strategy was probably the right one for captain Chapple to play, with hindsight it's fairly obvious that he kept his team out there for far too long. Making 266 from 54 overs, Chapple set Middlesex an unlikely 429 to win from three and a half sessions, and the fact that he stayed out there long into the final session of the third day only helped Middlesex in their attempts to save the draw.

Of course, given the way we batted Chapple could have given us ten sessions and probably wouldn't have got us out. Chris Rogers was like a man possessed, and after missing out a bit this year, you sensed that he was determined to make a telling score and save the game for his side. 138 not out was made by Buck - his first ton of the year - and indeed only his second time past fifty. Those runs just show Buck's importance to the team; with backs up against the wall he's often the man who delivers. He's now made four tons for Middlesex, and none of them have been made in winning causes, but this only emphasises the fact that he puts his hand up and makes the "hard" runs when his team needs it most. Credit must also go to Sam Robson and Joe Denly who both kept him company and made fifties as the draw was managed at 5pm only 1 wicket down.

Again, another week where Middlesex have competed well. As with quite a few games this year, we haven't got into many winning positions, but we have showed that we can compete, and that we are able to hold our own against the strongest teams in the division. Lancashire have struggled this year, but they still are a good side, so to take a draw from that game is very encouraging. Next up is Sussex, and while we've now had a run of fixtures against teams who will fancy finishing at the top end of the table, we now have a chance to beat one of the 'teams around us' in mid-table. Sussex do of course have a strong side, but so do we, and this is exactly the sort of game that we should be targeting. Here is the squad that's been announced...:


Chris Rogers (c)
Gareth Berg
Corey Collymore
Joe Denly
Neil Dexter
Steven Finn
Dawid Malan
Eoin Morgan
Tim Murtagh
Ollie Rayner
Sam Robson
Toby Roland-Jones
John Simpson


No real shocks to the squad, and we're lucky to have Finn back for this game after he missed the adventures in Aigburth. Toby Roland-Jones has come back in after recovering from his injury, and he'll hope to continue the excellent start to the season that he was enjoying before he was struck down. However, unless Berg or Murtagh are given a rest Toby's unlikely to play, with Finn likely to be the man coming straight in for Collymore, who again went wicketless against Lancashire.

Corey's had a pretty miserable start to the season, and just hasn't got it going, which has really made his place vulnerable. He's only taken six first class wickets all year, and the likes of Steven Crook and Anthony Ireland may not be too far away from a call up if Corey's misery continues. For my money, it's the dreads. Once those grow back, he'll be fine...

I'd guess that the team will be the same as at Liverpool other than Finn in for Corey, which means we'll line up as:

Rogers (c)
Robson
Denly
Malan
Morgan
Dexter
Simpson (wk)
Berg
Rayner
Murtagh
Finn


With Denly enjoying batting at three (after being pushed down a spot when Strauss was around) he looks as though he's staying there, and while Rogers does prefer batting at first drop, he's more than capable (as proved last week) as an opener, and is happy to take one for the team and open up alongside Robson. Otherwise I don't envisage any shocks to that team, and with the sun due to be out at Lord's, it might be nice to win the toss (for once), have a bat and stick on about 700! Here's to the next four days!

So what have I missed?

OK, I'll admit it. I forgot that I had a Middlesex blog, so completely forgot to put stuff up about the Notts, Holland and Leicestershire games. Oops. Sorry.

So what haven't I talked about? Obviously the story of the Notts game was the Ollie Rayner century. Ollie, or the Brighton Bradman as he is hereforth to be known, made an incredible 143 not out when coming in as a nightwatchman. Given the relative lack of support from the rest of the team (nobody else made fifty) after a very big 423 from Notts, Ollie's knock was invaluable in the context of the match, and his first county championship ton. Without it (which allowed us to declare 123 runs behind) Middlesex wouldn't have had any chance at all, and after a few early wickets in the Notts second innings, a famous Middlesex victory was not out of the question at all. At 23-4 after the first ball of the final day, an attacking declaration could have seen an enthralling day, but sadly Chris Read saw fit to kill the game by batting on for far too long, and when he eventually called them in, any chances of anyone seizing a result had long gone.

A fine battling performance against a very strong team at Trent Bridge, and again, showing that Middlesex have earned the right to compete in Division One. While we may not be good enough (yet) to really start thinking about winning these sorts of games, the fact that Middlesex held their own for four days (mostly) is very encouraging.

From Nottingham the team went off over the seas to the now-annual trip to Holland (which the players enjoy more than any away trip). Luckily players and hardy supporters alike were able to celebrate an excellent victory, with 212-9 being chased down with only two wickets lost. Paul Stirling excelled with the ball with four wickets (showing just how good he is when the ball is thrown to him - take note Dexy!), before Denly (96*) and Rogers (83*) saw them home with consummate ease. Up against a Dutch side who have started this year's CB40 very well, such a good victory has really set us off in the competition, especially after such a poor performance in the first game against Gloucestershire.

After a few days off, the boys then went up to Leicestershire for another CB40 game. Leicestershire have had their struggles in recent seasons, but have started this one well, and their T20 win last year proves that in limited over cricket they are a very strong side. Boosted by the return of Finn (who missed out on the England test side) and Morgan (back from the IPL and making his first Middlesex appearance since June 2010), the Panthers got to a very handy 241-6, thanks to late order runs from Dexter and Berg. And after Finn ripped into the Foxes early on (picking up 3-30 from his 8 overs), victory was always likely, and despite runs from the ever-impressive Ned Eckersley, Leicestershire were eventually bowled out 31 runs short of Middlesex's total.

So there we have it, just in case you were wondering what had happened to this blog. Here's to another famous victory at Aigburth (although with Lancs 128/1 in the second innings and 291 runs ahead as I write, a great escape would be more likely)!

A few harsh lessons learnt

After a month of the four-day stuff, the coloured kits were broken out for the first time this season as Middlesex took on Gloucestershire in the first CB40 game of the season, and as it happened, it was live on Sky. Sadly, it was quite comfortably Middlesex's worst performance of the season, almost from start to finish, as the Gloucs Gladiators ran out victors by 5 wickets.




After rain washed out a couple of hours, the match was reduced to 26 overs a side, and after losing yet another toss (that's 5 out of 5 defeats with the coin this year), Middlesex (back under the stewardship of Neil Dexter) were asked once more to bat (that's the 5th time out of 5 that that's happened too). Malan and Denly opened up, and looked fairly confident, but while they put on 45 runs for the first wicket, they never really got going. Wickets fell all too regularly, and no batsman got set, or indeed scored at the rate necessary in a much reduced game. Only Paul Stirling of the top seven scored at over a run a ball, and against Gloucestershire attack that (no offence) didn't look that threatening, that isn't good enough.




Some late order smashing got us up to over 150 from the 26 overs, which looked about par, but would need a good bowling performance to defend it. Sadly, we didn't get it. Murtagh and Collymore opened up, and bowled what can only be described as a load of shite. For reasons that I am yet to understand, Murtagh, who has bowled almost solely from the Nursery End in his Middlesex career, was told to run in from the Pavilion, and vice versa for Corey. Whether that was a hunch or not from cap'n Dexter, it failed spectacularly, with Hamish Marshall cashing in on some lacklustre bowling to set a platform for an easy chase for his team. The bowlers were rotated a fair bit, with 8 of the team getting a go (for trivia fans, the three not required to turn their arms over were Simpson, Malan and Rogers), with part-time being favoured to the specialist bowlers at times, with Gareth Berg only getting one over. It was a very poor effort from Middlesex in the field; they didn't bowl well enough, didn't field as well as Gloucestershire (who saved at least ten runs through athletic fielding) and ultimately, they didn't bat as well as them either. All-round, a very disappointing effort from Middlesex.




On the bright side, this is just the first game, so there is still time to turn it around in the 40 over competition, but the nature of the competition is that only one of the seven in the group (or two if we're lucky) can get through, so we're going to have to bounce back very quickly. Also some positives to take out of the game was the bowling of Ollie Rayner, who was very economical from his six overs and took two wickets, and I thought Steven Crook bowled with pace and hostility on his first outing of the year as the game ebbed away from Middlesex. John Simpson paced his innings very well, after a slow start to gauge conditions he then started to free the arms, and without his quickfire 29, the game could really have been embarrassing.




However, it wasn't a day of many positives, and the Panthers will have to pick themselves up from the defeat and move on quickly. And the first place to move on to is the 4 day game at Nottingham starting tomorrow (Wednesday), for which a 12 man squad has been announced:




Chris Rogers (c)

Gareth Berg

Corey Collymore

Joe Denly

Neil Dexter

Steven Finn

Dawid Malan

Tim Murtagh

Ollie Rayner

Sam Robson

John Simpson

Andrew Strauss







Strauss and Finn are available, for what might be the last time before the test series starts, which is a plus. Toby Roland-Jones is out with a foot injury, which hopefully won't be too serious, and his place will almost certainly be filled by Corey Collymore, who's missed the last two games. Corey's had a very slow start to the season, and will really want to make his mark on a Nottinghamshire team that have begun the season very well. They, like us, will have the England duo of Swann and Broad available, but luckily they're missing Patel and Taylor, who are on England Lions duty.




The pessimists amongst the Middlesex fans who are looking at relegation will note that we already have two of the so-called "four wins needed to stay up", and with three quarters of the season still remaining, another win here would really see us looking up the table, rather than down. Of course, this comes against a Nottinghamshire team full of strength and confidence, but there's enough quality in the Middlesex team too to pull of an upset. The toss at Trent Bridge has been fairly key, with loads of wickets falling on the first day, before it dries out to see runs later on in the game, so hopefully Buck will have been practising his tossing and it will come down on our side. There's a very high chance of rain in the game (90% on one day), but fingers crossed it will all stay dry and allow Middlesex to continue their (championship) unbeaten run.




Come on the Middle!

Denly, declarations, and defeat (for Worcestershire)

After three rain ruined days, the match between Middlesex and Worcestershire seemed to be heading towards a bore draw. However, after an early morning conversation between the captains, and a rather generous declaration from Worcs captain Mitchell, Middlesex needed 10 wickets in a day to win the game, and did so with a few hours to spare, finally wrapping up the final wicket as Worcestershire were all out for 150, with Middlesex taking the win by 132 runs.

With a contrived double declaration overnight meaning Worcestershire needed 283 runs for victory from the 96 overs in the day, it was always going to be a tough ask, and questions will need to be asked of the Worcestershire captain, as it always seemed a ridiculously unlikely scenario to see his team win. Credit must go to Rogers for somehow getting Mitchell to agree to the target, as only a Middlesex win was ever likely - that was proved as Worcs fell one ball short of half way to surviving the day, and 132 runs short of actually winning the game.

Anyway, Middlesex pick up their second win of the season, and move into fourth spot in the table. Relegation? Pah!

So what have we learned from the game? Well, first and foremost, Joe Denly is some player. Coming in after a decent sized partnership between Robson and Strauss (Robbo made 50, Strauss fell one run short of his half-century), Denly looked incredibly composed at the crease, and his first Middlesex century (an unbeaten 134 - incidentally just two runs more than the eventual margin of victory, so it could quite literally be called a "match-winning innings") included 19 fours and a six - a sign that he is more than capable of sending the ball to the boundary. A different innings to his previous 'big' score for Middlesex, where he gutsed out a seventy-odd against Vernon Philander and Somerset , Denly was able to take advantage of some less than dangerous bowling, and push Middlesex up to 327/7 declared - what proved to be a winning score. Alan Richardson aside, Worcs' bowling attack looked very ordinary, and allied to an equally average batting performance, it's easy to see why many are tipping them to go down this year. You feel Richardson's going to have to have yet another magical season with the ball if they're to get anywhere in Division One this summer.

Equally, however, while the top order thrived, the middle order failed, yet again. 4, 5, 6 and 7 of Rogers, Malan, Dexter and Simpson only contributed 23 runs between them, and that middle-order collapse has become a part of every game this year. While we've often been bailed out by the strong top order, there are question marks over some of these players, and it will be interesting to see who scores heavily for the seconds (if they're able to get out on the pitch) over the next few weeks, as they may well be called into action to rejuvinate an ailing Middlesex middle. Runs for Berg were handy after a torrid start to the season with the bat for him (he now averages 8 with the blade), and of course, the Lambeth Lara remained unbeaten as Middlesex declared, with Murtagh's average now second in the list this year for Middlesex, with 32.

However, as well as Middlesex batted, the game was won with the ball. After taking two Worcs wickets last night, they came back this morning to see Worcestershire had started a new innings, and then took the ten wickets to win for just 150. Middlesex's bowling figures so far this year are excellent, with Roland-Jones leading the way with 16 Championship wickets at an incredible return of 13. He took four wickets in the game, as did Murtagh, with Finn and Berg both chipping in with two apiece. Yet again Middlesex haven't needed a spinner, and given the early season conditions being incredibly conducive for the fast bowlers, chances are Ollie Rayner may be waiting a while to get a go again in four day cricket. Corey Collymore (to my surprise) missed out in this game, and given the form of the four seamers, and with Finn likely to be available for next week's game at Trent Bridge against Nottingham, Corey may miss out once more. There are some faint murmerings of the West Indies calling Corey up for their test side for the games against England due to the visa problems of their touring squad, which would see the odd situation of Corey getting into the West Indies team but not Middlesex's! (Although I do have it on fairly good authority that Corey will not be called for, and even if he was, he would be unlikely to accept, given that this would end his hopes of playing for Middlesex as a Kolpak).

The big story from the game however was the declaration, and while other counties might sniff at an incredibly generous offer from Mitchell, it can't be denied that Middlesex played winning cricket throughout the game. Our 327/7 played 195/12, and it would have been unfair had rain denied us the chance to take the win, and the valuable 16 points. The fact that 16 points is on offer for the win (as opposed for the 3 for the draw) would have tempted Mitchell into his decision, as a draw is almost meaningless compared to the vast rewards given by a win. However, Worcestershire supporters will bemoan the fact that a more even declaration was not sought by Mitchell, as it was a very one-sided decision, and I'm sure Rogers would have accepted a 260 chase in 60 overs, rather than 283 in 96, which completely took the draw out of the equation, and made the Worcs chase incredibly unlikely. Still, Middlesex won't mind, and will take a big win which could prove crucial come the end of the season.

Up tomorrow is the start of the CB40 with a game against Gloucestershire, and we wait with baited breath the squad for that, just to see in what direction the side will be going. Will bring you news of that as and when!

Come on the Middle!

Middlesex v Worcestershire Squad News

Middlesex's week off couldn't have come at a better time, as every game around the country was rain ruined, with no results possible. This means that nobody was able to get a big win, effectively meaning Middlesex will have 16 games in a 15 game season, and the extra points there could make all the difference come the end of September. Everyone will be hoping that the rain doesn't come this week, as on paper, Worcestershire at home is our most winnable game of the year. No disrespect at all to Worcs, but looking at their squad compared to the other counties in Division One, they appear to be the weakest, and the home and away games against them should be our best chance of racking up some serious points. It would have been infuriating had this game been last week to see both teams sit in the pavilion for all four days (as happened at the Oval, where Surrey and Durham didn't even get one ball bowled), so fingers crossed the weather stays fine for this week.

Onto matters Middlesex, and the 13 man squad has been named...
Chris Rogers (c)
Gareth Berg
Corey Collymore
Joe Denly
Neil Dexter
Steven Finn
Dawid Malan
Tim Murtagh
Ollie Rayner
Sam Robson
Toby Roland-Jones
John Simpson (wk)
Andrew Strauss

Unsurprsingly, it's the 11 who took on Durham last time out, with the addition of the rested Corey Collymore, and 12th man Ollie Rayner. Chris Rogers remains as captain, and there don't seem to be any injury doubts, meaning that (perhaps Eoin Morgan aside) this is Middlesex's strongest possible squad for a four day game. (Although fans of Paul Stirling will tell you different)

As for the team that will be picked, chances are the make-up of the team will be the same. Ollie Rayner didn't play last time, and seeing as it's even less likely to spin this week, he'll probably miss out again, meaning it'll be six batsmen with the keeper at seven, followed by four seamers. Corey was rested against Durham, but he's back, and with the rotation policy that is needed for the bowlers, one of Murtagh, Roland-Jones or Berg will make way for Corey. It could be any of those three, but it won't make much difference as to who misses out, as with Finn and Collymore in (plus two others) it will be a very strong seam attack either way. The rest that whoever it is gets will be important as the season progresses, so there won't be many complaints from whoever is chosen to help Ollie mix some drinks for the four days.

As to the batting, Middlesex will really need to be on their game, especially with Wisden Cricketer of the Year, and former Middlesex favourite Alan Richardson taking the new ball. Ideally we might win a toss for the first time this year, but at some point Richo will be running in at us, and given the collapses that have plagued our season thus far, someone's really going to have to step up. Richardson is the main man for Worcs, and a real threat, and given our poor performances to Philander, Dernbach and Onions so far, that could be a real worry.

Anyway, we're currently fifth in the table, with a game in hand over three of the team above us, so let's hope we can pick up a big win this week and push up into those Champions League spots!