Well yesterday was the 2nd of the pre-season games that I am planning to attend, a 40 over game between Northamptonshire and Middlesex.
Overnight rain meant the game didn't start until 11:00 where Northants won the toss and stuck Middlesex in. Jack Brooks bowled a cracking spell from the Lynn Wilson end and had Paul Stirling bowled for 6. Scott Newman on the other hand was taking apart David Lucas and hit sixes off both him and Brooks before David Willey held on to a screamer at point to leave Middlesex 41-2. Dan Housego and Tom Scollay then led a recovery before Middlebrook bowled Housego off the bottom edge for 12.
David Willey bowled a tight spell from the Lynn Wilson end and had Scollay lbw for 27 to leave the total looking precarious at 92-4. Gareth Berg then set about scoring runs without getting out (something that hadn't quite been managed up to now) in his 45 including a big six off Lucas in his 2nd spell. Simpson went and just when Dexter was looking good he carved to point off Lucas and then Steven Crook played the same shot in the same over, 156-7. Ollie Rayner started hitting with Berg, but both of them went with the score in the 190s, Rayner's being a comical run out where Davey ran for the third and did for Rayner by half a pitch length.
Smith and Davey, however took 17 off the final over to get to 230-9, a total that felt light given the short western boundary.
Northants innings began with Crook castling Loye only for it to be a no-ball and the free hit to be battered for 4. Tim Murtagh bowled a miserly spell to keep the required rate at a run a ball. Crook then bowled Newton for 9 and the no ball started to look expensive as Rob White and Loye took the total past 50. Luck was about to hit Middlesex as Loye dragged a drive straight to a startled Stirling at mid-on to bring in Alex Wakely in what was the partnership of the match. The two both brought up fifties with Wakely hitting sixes off Smith and Dexter as Middlesex tried 8 bowlers in an effort to take a wicket. Just as the two started to accelerate, however, Crook bagged White for 54, but Wakely looked as though he could carry the team home on his own as he took 17 off the first powerplay over with the required rate pushing 10 and over. David Sales inability to score fast meant that Wakely had to take risks and he took one too many from Murtagh's excellent powerplay bowling and was well caught on the square leg boundary by Davey and the belief that Middlesex could actually win returned to the players.
The end result was only a 7 run win with Niall O'Brien being caught and Sales run out in the final over as Hall valiantly tried to hit the sixes needed but came up short.
The Middlesex bowling looked better than it had against Surrey, but the batting was still suspect with more than one dodgy shot being played.
