We All Fall Down...

16th August, Canterbury, under the floodlights for Kent vs Middlesex in the CB40 in front of the Sky cameras as Middlesex needed to win to have any chance of making the semi finals. Neil Dexter won the toss and Middlesex decided to bat first with Martin Van Jaarsveld captaining Kent with Rob Key rested.
Scott Newman and Dawid Malan opened the batting and scored slowly off the first seven overs before Newman was caught behind off Azhar Mahmood for 11, 23-1. Malan and Paul Stirling then set about scoring at a healthy pace and brought up their 50 partnership in the 14th over. The pair batted well without scoring many boundaries and Malan reached his 50 off 58 balls with Middlesex cruising past 100 and Van Jaarsveld trying eight different bowlers and shortly after the 100 partnership the eighth one (Simon Cook) had Stirling just stumped in the 22nd over for 45 leaving Middlesex 130-2.
Dexter now joined Malan and they carried on the good work and with 10 overs to go Middlesex were 193-2 and looking well placed to make 280+ and the batting powerplay was taken at the start of the 32nd over which Wahab Riaz obliged in bowling 3 consecutive no-balls in as Malan reached his first List-A hundred off 106 balls though not without some trouble from Riaz's yorkers which he fell over twice. The 36th over was to prove the beginning of the Kent fightback as Riaz had Malan LBW falling over another yorker for an excellent 107, 239-3.
Malan's teammates then conspired to throw away the chance of a big total as the last eight wickets fell for 24 in 26 balls. Chris Rogers edged Mahmood to Geraint Jones for 3, John Simpson was LBW to Riaz for 5, Dexter, after reaching his 50 off 46 chipped one to substitute Matt Coles at mid on for 58. Steve Crook was caught by Tredwell off Mahmood for 0, Tom Smith also fell for 1 in the same over caught at third man. Jamie Dalrymple then had his off stump cartwheeled by Riaz for 2 and Toby Roland-Jones went almost identically next ball to leave Riaz with 5-46 and Mahmood 4-52 and Middlesex 263 all out with 3 balls left unfaced.
Tim Murtagh opened the bowling and the spin of Smith opened from the Nackington Road End and Smith bowled what turned out to be the only maiden over in the match. Only 15 came from the first 4 overs but soon it became clear that this was a good pitch and that scoring runs on it was really quite easy and the 50 came up before Daniel Bell-Drummond sliced Crook to Rogers on the boundary for 17, 51-1. Next over, Roland-Jones had Joe Denly LBW for 28, 55-2. Van Jaarsveld then gave Malan a catch to fall for 0 and Kent were 56-3 and Middlesex were back in the game again.
Mahmood and Darren Stevens then set about steadying the ship and kicked on as the pair added 90 in 12.1 overs before Mahmood was LBW to Malan for 46, 146-3. Sam Northeast helped Stevens past 50 (42 balls). 74 runs were needed off the final 10 overs just when it looked like the game was gone, Stevens fell for 65 giving Dexter an easy wicket. 195-5 became 213-6 as Jones hoisted one from Roland-Jones to Crook at long-on who took an easy catch. Adam Ball joined Northeast and they added the partnership which took Kent almost to the win with 29 in 3.4 overs before Ball edged Roland Jones to Simpson for 19. 22 needed off 16 had been reduced to 15 off 12 when Northeast launched one off Murtagh high towards Smith at deep midwicket who ran round and dropped the catch over the ropes for 6 to bring up Northeast's 50 (43 balls) and to almost win the game for Kent, 3 balls later another heave produced a drop from Crook at long-on. Northeast's next heave off the last ball of the over did produce his downfall (ct Dexter b Murtagh 57) as only 4 were needed off the final over which were easily achieved by Riaz(12*) and Tredwell(1*) for Kent to finish 264-8 and win by 2 wickets with 3 balls left. Roland Jones finished with 3-51 and Crook 2-38 as Middlesex now had a very limited chance of qualifying for the semi-finals of the CB40. Mahmood was given man of the match for his all-round performance and everyone shot off home as the championship game between these sides begins at noon.

A Tough Day

The 2nd day of the top of the table match between Middlesex and Northamptonshire at Lord's started with Middlesex 198-6 after a reduced first day. John Simpson and Toby Roland-Jones were batting and they quickly brought up the 200 with Simpson playing well and Roland-Jones hanging in to bring up the 50 partnership before Roland-Jones was bowled by James Middlebrook for 24. 236-7 and Steve Crook in to hit a quick 12 before edging Middlebrook to Steven Peters. Tim Murtagh then stuck around Simpson until lunch with Middlesex on 296-8, only 4 runs short of the next batting point.
The 300 came up as Simpson reached 50 off 131 balls before Murtagh was LBW to Chaminda Vaas for 27. Simpson finally fell in identical fashion for 61 to give Vaas 5-76 with Corey Collymore 5 not out and Middlesex 317, a good recovery but probably not enough runs.
The Northants innings got off to a quick start with Peters and Mal Loye looking at ease against the Middlesex bowlers who couldn't assert any pressure as the 50 partnership was raised and at tea the score was 78-0.
The problems continued after tea as none of Middlesex's 7 bowlers were effective as first Peters (99 balls) then Loye (101 balls) reached 50 and passed 100 without loss.
The 150 partnership came before Crook finally bowled a couple of troubling balls to Peters who eventually got a leading edge that Crook clung on to with a smart diving catch to go for 75, 158-1. Crook was to have two wickets in 7 balls as Rob White (4) fell over a pull shot and guided an edge to Dawid Malan at slip, 164-2. Loye (80*) and Alex Wakely (12*) saw out the rest of the day to leave Northants 188-2 only 128 runs behind Middlesex.