Life On The Trapdoor

The 3rd day of Middlesex vs Lancashire at Lord's started off looking like an uninteresting day as Lancashire resumed on 236-3, 210 runs behind Middlesex. They batted onwards, but scored slowly as they managed 30 runs in the first 15 overs. The overnight 50+ man Ashwell Prince fell for 71, edging Toby Roland-Jones to Dawid Malan at first slip and Steven Croft went shortly after, Roland-Jones removing his middle and leg stumps, and leaving the off pole at an angle as the ball didn't really bounce, 270-5 and Middlesex on top. Lancashire keeper Gareth Cross then revived his side, attacking Steve Crook, Corey Collymore and Ravi Patel all round the ground as he raced to a 30 ball fifty either side of lunch and went into the final bonus point over (the 110th) needing 9 runs for a fourth point, Gareth Berg's first ball was then murdered into the Tavern stand for six, but he fell next ball, edging to keeper John Simpson for a 35 ball 59. That gave Middlesex a 2nd bowling point and Karl Brown (who'd batted all day) brought up the 350 with 2 balls to spare.
The task was now to get a first innings lead as Warwickshire had now won the title off Lancashire and Surrey were looking strong in their game. This meant that a win was a must and Brown finally went to 50, from 133 balls but Kyle Hogg departed next ball, smashing Patel straight to Malan at mid on for 10. Glenn Chapple then came in and played sensibly with Brown, scoring steadily and passing 400, before speeding up by smashing Neil Dexter for six over long on and it looked like they might still be able to get a 50 run lead. But, when they'd added 51, Chapple charged Patel, missed, and was easily stumped by Simpson for 29, 426-8. Ajmal Shahzad was then LBW to Patel (his fourth) for 10 with 9 needed for the lead, which Brown got with a sweep for four off Patel's next over. The end came soon after, as Berg returned to the attack and removed Brown's off stump first ball for 78, all out for 448 leading by 2, Patel's 4-126 being the pick of the bowlers.
Middlesex's reply then got off to a rocky start as Sam Robson was LBW to Chapple (his sixth of the match) for 3, 5-1. Chris Rogers and Joe Denly then steadily built the lead before Shahzad fired one through Denly on 17, 44-2. But that was to be the last wicket of the day as Malan joined Rogers in batting out the day with some stylish strokeplay, with Rogers going to his 50 from 69 balls as Middlesex ended the day 129-2.
A partnership of 85 with Rogers on 57 and Malan, 37, one day away from possibly relegating the former Champions, leading by 127.

Eagles Plucked, Roasted, and Fried

The final CB40 game of the season for both these sides, since neither could qualify for the knockouts, Essex won the toss and fielded. This looked like a good choice as Joe Denly went for a duck first over, as Tim Phillips got the ball to pop, take the edge and James Foster completed the catch, 0-1. Dawid Malan and Paul Stirling then got about the business of runs, thanks to the filth served up by Maurice Chambers as 10 came off his first over and 21 from his third over, including two no balls and 4 consecutive boundaries by Malan as the 50 was up in 6 overs. Runs were flying all round the ground and it was a surprise when Stirling edged Greg Smith to Foster trying one shot too many for 29, 63-2. Neil Dexter then came and went fairly quickly, pulling to Ten Doeschate at midwicket for 12. 90-3 and Gareth Berg came to the wicket and he and Malan scored the big runs that took the game away from Essex as Malan went to a 45 ball 50. The 50 partnership came with Malan swinging Tim Phillips into the Edrich stand for six.
Poor bowling from Essex fed easy runs as Berg went to a 52 ball 50 before Malan completed his 2nd List A hundred from 89 balls, a fantastic innings that left Middlesex on top. With 8 overs left the score was 216-3. Berg would fall for 61 from 58, giving Ravi Bopara his first success on what was basically match practice ahead of the England ODIs, but next over he was swung into the Tavern stand for Malan's 2nd six. His third six came off Harbhajan next over, a flat blow that cleared Chambers and long-on and went into the Edrich Stand. Owais Shah showed how poor Essex were in the field by dropping Malan at long off next ball and allowing the batsmen to get back for a 2nd. Then came the clatter of wickets as Josh Davey (11) skied to Tom Westley off Ten Doeschate before Malan hit one flat shot too many off Harbhajan where Chambers took the catch at the 2nd attempt to end an innings of 134 off 108 balls, a great score when runs were needed. That left Middlesex 272-6and they would be bowled out in the final 2 overs with batsmen going for quick runs, 288 after Collymore was run out by ten Doeschate from the final ball of the innings. Ravi Bopara took 3 wickets but conceded 55 in his 7 overs.
Essex's reply began quietly as 12 runs came from the opening 5 overs from Collymore and Steve Crook before Pettini started to attack, taking Crook over the short off side boundary for six then four, follwing it up with more fours in Crook's next over. The ninth over saw the debut bowl from Gurjit Sandhu, left arm quick, and 2nd ball, Pettini sliced through the off side, straight to Berg at point, 39-1. Harbhajan was promoted to number 3 but didn't last long as he made 3 before top edging Collymore straight up in the air, where the big man ran in and took the catch himself, 48-2. Bopara didn't hang around as his dodgy day ended after scoring 2 as he tried to steer through the offside, only to edge to keeper Adam Rossington, 53-3 and in a bit of trouble. Tom Westley swung Collymore for six into the Tavern Stand, but that didn't detract from his figures, 1-20 from 7 overs. Westley and Shah rebuilt the innings with some sensible batting against Middlesex's 2nd string attack, the short boundary providing some easy pickings.
Westley went to a 67 ball 50 but the required run rate was mounting and was already 10 an over as Essex needed 163 from the final 16 overs. Even Westley sweeping Dexter for 6 didn't help that much as he then mistimed a pull off Stirling high to square leg where Tom Smith took a good catch. Shah's 50 came from 46 balls, but he became Stirling's 2nd victim next over, slashing a ball to Smith (again) at short third man, 165-5.
Foster and Ten Doeschate tried to go about scoring runs, but 120 from 60 balls was proving too much, and after smashing Berg through point for four, Foster was bowled for 12 as the gloom started to close in on both the game and Essex. Sandhu had time to bag his third, Ten Doeschate hitting to Smith at mid on as bad light stopped play after 35.1 overs with Essex 198-7, Middlesex winners by 54 runs on DL. Pick of the bowling figures, Stirling 2-22 from 4 and the impressive Sandhu, 3-28 from 6.
Middlesex finish runners up in their group for the 2nd consecutive year.

The Closing Darkness

Middlesex resumed on the final day at Edgbaston 351-5, leading by 305, and batted on. Dawid Malan added 2 to his overnight 138 before he edged to Tim Ambrose from Chris Wright's first over of the morning, 357-6 ending a partnership of 105 with Gareth Berg. Berg and Steve Crook then started planting the ball all round the park with Crook planting Keith Barker into the Eric Hollies stand at midwicket. The pair added 42 in 7 overs before Crook feathered a Boyd Rankin bouncer through to Ambrose for 19 for his fourth wicket, 399-7. Berg (78 from 102) then slapped a cut to Darren Maddy at point for Wright's fourth wicket. Tim Murtagh edged Rankin to Rikki Clarke at slip first ball as Rankin finished with 5-78. Toby Roland-Jones was last man out after swinging at every ball in the over (from which 2 fours came) and forcing a long-stop fielder into position, TRJ last heave went to Barker at midwicket, Wright taking 5-119 as Middlesex finished on 412 leaving Warwickshire an unlikely 367 runs to win.
Warwickshire began badly, Ian Westwood (0) edging low where Adam Rossington flew low to his left in front of first slip to cling on to a great catch, 7-1. Next over, things got even worse as Varun Chopra missed a pull and could only limply top edge to Murtagh running round from mid-on for 4 off Roland-Jones, 7-2.and before lunch, they'd be 3 down as Will Porterfield charged past Ravi Patel's first ball to be comfortably stumped by Rossington for 12, 31-3.
Jim Troughton and Maddy hit some boundaries to bring up the 50, as Maddy then pulled a full ball from Berg, missed and was LBW for 10. Warwickshire now went very defensive (even though Clarke smashed Patel back over his head for six) as the gloom and rain began to close in. Roland-Jones then got Clarke LBW with one that swung sharply inwards, 86-5. The rain then delayed any further play until after tea. Troughton edged down the leg side where Rossington juggled the catch at the 2nd attempt, 100-6 and notionally 30 overs left to survive. With the light deteriorating Middlesex needed wickets, and a dropped catch in the deep off Patel didn't help as Dawid Malan came on to bowl from the Pavilion end in tandem with Patel. Blackwell's free strokeplay led to his downfall, slicing a drive back to Patel for 23, 134-7.
That would be it as far as wickets were concerned as Ambrose (having had an x-ray after being hit on the fingers when keeping) and Barker batted out 14 overs until the light caused play to be abandoned with Warwickshire 152-7, taking 9 points (staying top) and Middlesex 8, Patel taking 3-60.

Moving Up

Clearing up the tail of the Warwickshire first innings proved somewhat tricky, as Keith Barker and Chris Wright carefully brought up the 300 before cutting loose, Toby Roland-Jones went for five fours in 8 balls, before Barker edged to Adam Rossington (diving to his right) off Tim Murtagh for 23, 328-9. Wright then tried to slam Murtagh into Birmingham, only to have is off stump removed for 13, 333 all out, a lead of 46.
Middlesex needed a better start than they had in the 1st innings, but Sam Robson was caught behind by Tim Ambrose from Wright's 2nd ball for 1. Joe Denly (15) hit 3 fours before compounding his difficult 2nd half of the season, edging to second slip where Rikki Clarke caught the ball well high above his head, 25-2. Then the runs began to come, thanks to Chris Rogers and Dawid Malan, two of the more consistent run scorers, putting on their first large partnership of the season. Middlesex regained the lead in the 11th over and eased past 50 as they reached 68-2 at lunch.
Rogers brought up the 100 with a top edged six that just carried over third man's desperate leap before Malan's sixth four brought up his 75-ball 50. The 100 partnership was raised and then Rogers went to 50 as well, from 86 balls. The runs continued to flow as the pair batted excellently against one of the best bowling attacks in the country, the high amount of no balls being bowled didn't help the home side as the pair advanced until Rogers reached his hundred from 143 balls in the 50th over, in the process passing 18000 first class runs. He fell soon after, trying to launch Boyd Rankin over point, only to edge to Varun Chopra at first slip for 109, breaking a partnership of 203. Warwickshire then fought back, Dexter (2) caught by Will Porterfield at gully off Rankin, 238-4. Malan went to his hundred next over from 158 balls and he and Rossington brought up the 200 lead before Rossington fell for 2, pulling Rankin to Darren Maddy at square leg, 252-5.
Then came the partnership that took the game away from Warwickshire, as Malan and Gareth Berg smashed the ball all round the ground adding 99 in the final 18 overs of the day, Berg racing to a 62 ball 50 as Middlesex closed 351-5, Berg 53 and Malan 138 not out, a lead of 305.

TRJ Saves The Day

Resuming the 2nd day at Edgbaston 21-0, Warwickshire batted onwards, lessening the deficit easily as the Middlesex attack was a bit uninspiring as Varun Chopra and Ian Westwood saw off Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones as the run rate was good, if not as rapid as Middlesex's, Westwood reaching 50 from 85 balls as the partnership passed 100. Westwood then accelerated after lunch (having not lost a wicket) and Westwood was on 96 before Chopra got to a 113 ball 50 and Westwood getting to 100 in 148 balls, his 2nd hundred against Middlesex in a month. Gareth Berg got the breakthrough, Chopra (56) well caught by Robson with the score at 175, which soon led to a 2nd, Ravi Patel getting his first championship wicket of Will Porterfield (13), caught low down by Dexter's knees at slip, Porterfield thought the ball hadn't carried and hung around for a while before finally trudging off, 194-2.
Jim Troughton smacked Patel for six, and some poor fielding off Crook led to 4 overthrows down to the cover boundary before Westwood was finally out, looping a catch to the sub Tom Scollay at mid-off off Neil Dexter for 120, a great innings, giving his side a good chance of a lead. Darren Maddy fell for 16, slicing to Crook at gully who held on to a great catch, 247-4. The new ball then came and Rikki Clarke went to the 10th ball with it, edging to Adam Rossington for 6 off Roland-Jones. Tim Ambrose went in identical fashion in Roland-Jones's next over for nought, 275-6. As the gloom closed in Roland-Jones bagged a third, Ian Blackwell LBW for 6, and Troughton went to a 106-ball 50 before falling to Murtagh next over, a wild hack to Robson at third slip, 291-8. Play ended to rain and bad light with Warwickshire on 293-8, a lead of six after a great fightback late in the day by Middlesex.

Big Birthday Ton

After defeat at The Oval, Middlesex moved north to Edgbaston for their next Championship game, and as usual, Middlesex lost the toss and found themselves batting, with Chris Wright and Keith Barker bearing down on them, but the outfield was fast and the bowling of the table toppers was wild and Sam Robson had smashed his way to a run a ball 28 before he lost Chris Rogers for 6, well caught at first slip by Rikki Clarke (playing with a side strain). Joe Denly smashed a four, then went for a horrific wild waft outside off stump to be caught behind by Tim Ambrose off Wright for 4, 46-2. Dawid Malan decided that being caught behind looked like fun, and was out for one in Wright's next over. 48-3 and it was looking like more of the same, but Neil Dexter (on his birthday) and Robson found some batting form, albeit with a large slice of luck.
Boundaries flew quickly, quite often off the edge over the slips (bringing that rarely seen third man into play), with Darren Maddy's first two overs going for 23 and Boyd Rankin failing to stem the flow as the 50 partnership came up in the 21st over and the 100 in the next. Robson departed before lunch, having past 50 from 62 balls, edged Rankin to Ambrose for 60 from 73, 121-4. Adam Rossington improved on his duck at the Oval by aiding Dexter (52 ball 50) in causing more heartache for the bowlers with more flashing drives over the slips and solid swing all round the wicket, showing how easy batting was once the new ball was gone. 3 consecutive fours by Dexter off Wright brought up the 50 partnership, and after 40 overs of the innings Middlesex had reached 200-4, better than some of their CB40 scores. Ian Blackwell was making his debut for Warwickshire, on loan from Durham, and he provided the control from the Birmingham End, with Rossington caught by Varun Chopra for his career high 29, 216-5. Gareth Berg then chipped to Will Porterfield at cover for 8, Blackwell's 2nd at 229. Steve Crook relaxed Dexter's 90s nerves by swing Wtight for 4 and then 6 over midwicket to raise the 250, before Dexter completed a 126 ball 100, his first in over a year and one that saved Middlesex from embarrassment. Crook fell to Blackwell just for tea for 27, and the innings finished soon after, Rankin having Dexter LBW for 101 and Toby Roland-Jones caught by Clarke for 0. A brief last wicket flurry took the score to 287, Ian Blackwell snaring Ravi Patel on debut to finished with 4-46.
Chopra and Ian Westwood saw out the 5.1 overs before bad light stopped play, 21-0.

A Ginger Rescue

The 2nd day of the crucial third Test match between England and South Africa to decide the number one spot in the rankings. South Africa resumed 262-7, with England looking to keep them below 320, Vernon Philander quickly completed his maiden test 50, from 75 balls, having lost Dale Steyn, well caught by Graeme Swann at 2nd slip for 26 off Stuart Broad. Morne Morkel then thumped a couple of boundaries as South Africa passed 300 in the 100th over. Steve Finn then had Morkel well taken one handed to his left by Matt Prior in his first over of the morning for 25 from 36. Swann then wrapped up proceedings as Philander went for a massive heave, to be smartly stumped by Prior for 61, Prior's sixth dismissal in the innings South Africa 309 all out, a total that gave England a chance if they could see off the new ball.
Andrew Strauss received much ovation as he walked out for his 100th test and got underway immediately, flicking Morkel for a single, before helping take 13 off Philander's first over. The pair added 29 in 10 overs before Morkel snuck one onto Strauss's stumps for 20 with 3 balls left in the session, there was to be no 100 in 100th test for him.
After lunch, England struggled, and Jonathan Trott fell third over after lunch for 8, LBW to Dale Steyn, not saved by a review, the ball was clipping leg stump. Steyn then made it 2 in four balls as Cook sliced to Kallis at 2nd slip who gobbled (sorry, couldn't resist) the chance as he departed for a 40 ball 7, 39-3. Now it was the turn of James Taylor and  Ian Bell to rescue England, Taylor edged Steyn for 4 before crashing him past point for four more, before England tried to block their way to safety as South Africa bowled tightly and Taylor finally edged low to Graeme Smith at first slip for 10, 52-4 and England in a bit of trouble with Jonny Bairstow now in and plenty of work to do. The pair started slowly but then began to cash in on the loose balls and brought up the 50 partnership in the 42nd over with Bell smacking a four. The runs flowed more easily and Bairstow took 13 off an over from Tahir as the explosion (relatively) in runs raised the 150 and the 100 partnership in the 54th over which also included Bairstow's maiden test 50 from 86 balls, an encouraging performance against the experienced bowling attack of South Africa. Bell's 50 wasn't far behind, guiding Kallis through point for four, but he would fall soon after edging Philander to Alviro Petersen at third slip for 58, 178-5.
Baristow and Prior then played cautiously until the close at 6:30, as England finished 208-5, Bairstow 72 and Prior on 22 still 101 behind and reliant on some lower order hitting to get any sort of lead.