T20 v Surrey

[Paul W]

After six championship matches we probably need a change of format, but I can't see us being any more competitive in this competition than previous years. Unless management unexpectedly pull a rabbit out of the hat and announce a second overseas signing I expect our line up will look something like-

Eskinazi, Holden, Malan, Cracknell, Simpson, Higgins, Andersson, Holman, Helm, Cullen, Walallawita.

Possibly TRJ rather than Cullen (who has been bowling a few no balls in his limited 2nd XI outings this year). Maybe De Caires instead of Andersson, but I reckon I'm reasonably close with our line up, given Robson, Stoneman, Murtagh and Bamber seldom feature in T20.

I don't like the 'proven to fail' formula of going in one batter light, but I don't think we've got much choice, as we have to have a 6th bowler, in case anyone gets collard by the opposition.

Preparing for a thrashing- but hoping to be pleasantly surprised.

[Peter H]

It's live on Sky Sports so I won't need to make the journey to Lord's: I can watch all the action from behind my sofa! :(

[James Mitchell]

After six championship matches we probably need a change of format, but I can't see us being any more competitive in this competition than previous years. [snip]
Preparing for a thrashing- but hoping to be pleasantly surprised.It's always amazed me that a team can look fairly average in one form of cricket, yet appear unbeatable in another. There arguably a lot more room for luck in T20 as well. You only need one player to show a bit of form - or for a few batters on the other side to collapse - and the game is won/lost.

I am not really a fan of the T20 format (much less the wretched https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/03/Emoji_u1f4af.svg but I still may pitch up next week if it's warm evening.

[Paul W]

Any hopes of a last minute overseas T20 signing have been dashed, as the 14 man squad has been named-

https://www.middlesexccc.com/news/2023/05/squad-preview-middlesex-v-surrey-vitality-blast

Knowing our liking to pay three spinners, will 19 year old Nathan Fernandes be making his debut- or is he just in the squad to add to his experience?

I expect three spinners was part of the plan when we thought we were going to have Keshav Maharaj with us- but do we go for a more experienced seamer, rather than Fernandes?

I'm afraid I can't see anything other than a thrashing.

I'll wait to see if we are batting first, or second before finalising my prediction score- 270 ish if we bat first- 370's if we bat second! (as in I expect us to make about 135 if we bat first, and Surrey to make over 200 if they bat first).

I really want to be wrong.......

[Jonathan Winsky]

It is difficult to feel particularly confident about Middlesex’s chances of registering a great deal of wins in this competition, as our squad can surely not be considered to be any stronger than in 2022, when we at least began with three straight wins, before recording just one further win in our 11 remaining group matches to finish second-bottom of our group.

The fact that our 2nd XI conceded 324-7 v Sussex at Richmond yesterday and therefore 46 more runs than the record for official Twenty20 matches does not give me confidence in the players on the fringes of our 1st XI.

I am not sure what the primary factor or factors are in us starting our campaign with only Pieter Malan due to take up a place in our two overseas player berths. The potential factors I can think of are: a lack of attractive signings available; our financial difficulties due to the pensions situation and Covid-19; the injury to Keshav Maharaj; and a preference to give experience to existing players at the club. Some of those factors may have played a large role in the lack of overseas signings, and some factors may not have played a role at all.

Seeing so many articles on the BBC cricket front page about counties signing overseas players or bringing in players on loan from other counties makes me feel a bit disappointed that we have not done something similar. Maybe it will happen at some point during the tournament.

Like a lot of Middlesex supporters, I support one of the football clubs who are often (not necessarily justifiably) criticised for changing coaches at the first signs of difficulties in pursuit of instant success, as opposed to giving them an opportunity to get through and learn from the difficult situation. Therefore, maybe it makes for a nice contrast that Middlesex seem to be taking the opposite approach with the players, as it seems that we are at least as focused on giving players experience with an eye on the future as we are on achieving success in 2023. In fact, it is both highly likely and more realistic that our focus should be on success later down the line than in 2023. I know that our management have spoken in the past about aiming to get more Twenty20 matches and sixes hit (hopefully not sixes conceded!) into our players’ belts.

I would like to think that if Nathan Fernandes does not get an opportunity to make his professional debut tomorrow, then it will come at some point in this competition. However, I hope that our campaign does not finish with us throwing loads of youngsters in simply because we are out of ideas or because our hopes of qualification for the quarter-finals has long gone meaning we are keeping players fresh for the County Championship. The matches come thick and fast, so that will give Fernandes and other fringe players hope that places will become available.

Surrey have named a 15-man squad for this match (https://www.kiaoval.com/surrey-name-squad-for-vitality-blast-opener-at-lords/) consisting of Sam Curran (C), Sean Abbott, Gus Atkinson, Jordan Clark, Laurie Evans, Will Jacks, Tom Lawes, Dan Moriarty, Sunil Narine, Jamie Overton, Jason Roy, Jamie Smith, Cam Steel, Tom Curran and Dan Worrall.

[Paul W]

JW-

I'd sooner we didn't pick Nathan Fernandes until we reach 'Podmore time'.

Podmore time meaning when we we know for certain we can't qualify for the quarter-finals- usually with about 2 or 3 matches left. For several years that was the point when Harry Podmore would get to make his first first team appearance of the summer.

Fernandes I think is more a batter who bowls a bit, so maybe the thinking is we could sneak in one or two overs at the most from him.

The problem is, like all our 2's he hasn't forced his way in to first team contention through big scores and lots of wickets for the 2's= he's in there because there's no-one else. That's not to say he might not be good enough further down the line, but he hasn't got any big second XI performances behind him to give him confidence ahead of a first team debut.

I suppose not having a second overseas is admission we don't expect to do well in this competition. If we thought a signing might be the difference in reaching a quarter-final, it would be worthwhile. If it's the difference between 7th and 9th place, might as well accept all the criticism and save a few bob.

And, once again, I really, really, really want to be wrong, but I really can't see anything other than a thrashing tonight.

[Paul W]

For the benefit of those without Sky, it appears it will be possible to view a live stream here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlxb79cB1fU

[MIDDLE EXILE]

For the benefit of those without Sky, it appears it will be possible to view a live stream here-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rlxb79cB1fU

I think you may find you need a SKY subscription to access this stream!

[adelaide]

I just clicked on the Subscribe button, expecting to see some sort of cost, but nothing like that happened - it simply tells me I am now subscribed.

Just have to wait and see...

[Paul W]

Nathan Fernandes makes his debut.

Carded to come in at 9, and picked in preference to Thilan Walallawita, who is left out.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

The Middle on offer at 5/2 is certainly worth a punt in a two-horse race.

[James Mitchell]

This is going to be a very large target for Middlesex.

[Andrew]

Am watching the match at home and one clear observation I can make is the pathetic crowd. When I say pathetic, I am obviously comparing it the sort of crowd this fixture used to attract. Almost always a full house whereas this time huge parts of the ground where the stands haven’t even been opened. It really does look here as if T20 has lost a lot of its popularity. Can’t really see any other excuses for the ground not to be full especially given the very nice weather. Surrey currently 172 for 2 so a big struggle for Middlesex.

[James Mitchell]

Indeed - there has been some discussion about the poor crowd in the MCC section. A few years ago there the ground would have been full and the Pavilion overcrowded.

Middlesex are making a decent fight of this after losing the early wicket.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

At £35 a ticket it's quite prohibitive for many. Lots are MCC or Middlesex members who pay no extra to attend and probably half of the rest are on a freebie as papering of the house is common for T20s at headquarters, and don't forget the extended rigmarole of buying tickets online and in advance.No family tickets available either,so hardly an attractive proposition especially when you can watch on SKY or it seems on a live stream on Utube.

[Paul W]

Oh well.

For the first 8 overs or so of our reply we were actually up with the rate, and looked like we might cause an upset.

Then normal service resumed......

[James Mitchell]

A huge defeat in the end.

[Andrew]

Indeed - there has been some discussion about the poor crowd in the MCC section. A few years ago there the ground would have been full and the Pavilion overcrowded.

Middlesex are making a decent fight of this after losing the early wicket.


That’s interesting and am not surprised that there was some dis about it. Obviously there were still thousands but not the many more thousands that this match used to attract. Something doesn’t seem to be quite right with the T20.

[Paul W]

It would be interesting to know if attendance is down because tickets are supposed to be bought in advance, and you have to print your own ticket.

I know people say you can pay by card on the gate, but isn't it just one person issuing the tickets, and it's deliberately made difficult to put people off.

[Andrew]

You can only assume that the club knew in advance pretty well how many would turn up given that the upper Compton and Edrich as well as the upper Grandstand and Tavern were completely empty and had clearly been deliberately left closed.

[adelaide]

It would be interesting to know if attendance is down because tickets are supposed to be bought in advance, and you have to print your own ticket.

I know people say you can pay by card on the gate, but isn't it just one person issuing the tickets, and it's deliberately made difficult to put people off.

It does seem ludicrous to cut yourself off from those who decide to go on the day when it looks like a nice warm evening (which admittedly this wasn't). Yes, OK, you probably can book it on your phone at half past five but I think you have to register on the Lord's site first (which I think is totally unnecessary for anything other than Lord's marketing purposes - but that's a slightly different topic). If you get that far you then see the price and say "maybe not". If someone turns up at the ground and sees the same exorbitant price they may well pay it to avoid having had a wasted journey/evening.

I suppose in this case people know that the match usually sells out and would be less inclined to turn up on the day for that reason.

Final factor - I am afraid that Middlesex's T20 frailties are too well known and prospective watchers didn't expect a truly competitive spectacle. As it happens it was pretty competitive until Jacks came on (what was his beef with Hollman? - no call for that).

I was pleasantly surprised to find I could watch the Sky feed on Youtube for free and without registering my mortal soul as theirs. The odd ball missed because of adverts, which presumably does not happen on the live feed. As for a lot of T20, I kept thinking "bowl at the wicket once in a while". If they miss, you hit. Some widish bowling is OK as variety is valuable but there were entire overs three feet outside off stump and successive legside wides. The extras resulted in a fielding penalty for slow over rate (what? Middlesex not keeping up with the rate?), though as the last over went rather well perhaps we should have bowled e-v-e-n m-o-r-e slowly to make the penalty last longer

[Paul W]

Apparently MCC need a crowd of 16,000 to break even for a night of T20, so last night is likely to have cost them, rather than make them money.

https://twitter.com/KevinHandBBC/status/1662000117262458881?cxt=HHwWgoCx4aGTzpAuAAAA

Maybe make it easier to pay on the gate, but a lot of the T20 crowd, just like the hundred are there for the atmosphere of a big event.

Now, if you were having to watch the pennies because of inflation, and you had the hundred undercutting you (isn't it about £20 a match?) people are going to go to the hundred- not because it's better- it's just cheaper.

[James Cohen]

Having got very cold at Lords, it amazes me that the “London Derby” was so poorly attended. Could it be that there was almost no marketing?

But it’s equally interesting that neither the Times nor Telegraph nor Daily Mail have a report on the game. It’s no wonder no one goes, no one really knows it’s even happening.

Perhaps the hyperthermic weather was a factor, but I would be amazed if there even 15,000 there.

[James Mitchell]

Having got very cold at Lords, it amazes me that the “London Derby” was so poorly attended. Could it be that there was almost no marketing?

But it’s equally interesting that neither the Times nor Telegraph nor Daily Mail have a report on the game. It’s no wonder no one goes, no one really knows it’s even happening.

Perhaps the hyperthermic weather was a factor, but I would be amazed if there even 15,000 there.The match being shown live on Sky (and also YouTube) probably kept a few away as well.

[Andrew]

The match being shown live on Sky (and also YouTube) probably kept a few away as well.

Am pretty sure that this fixture has been shown on Sky quite a few times before in front of full houses. I really do wonder if the main reason was more to do with a decline in interest in the T20 rather than many of the other reasons mentioned on here so far.

[VipinKhanna]

lack of star players another reason maybe.

[Jonathan Winsky]

The match went more or less how I expected it would. Surrey’s 199-6 was less than I thought they would make at one stage. During the first half of Middlesex’s reply, we were up with the rate required (or at least I thought we were, as the rate required was shown on the scoreboard at the start of our innings, but I think the calculation used was runs required divided by balls faced instead of balls remaining, meaning the rate required was shortly after removed and did not return), but I imagine that most people knew that our only chance of winning would have been had the ongoing fourth wicket partnership as well as the next few partnerships carried on the momentum, something which didn’t happen considering 93-3 became 126 all out in the space of 5.2 overs.

Our side seems a pale shadow of the 2019 side which reached the dizzy heights of a quarter-final. That season, at least one of AB de Villiers, Dawid Malan, Paul Stirling, Eoin Morgan, John Simpson and Stevie Eskinazi could be relied upon to deliver with the bat, while we had a settled bowling line-up of Toby Roland-Jones, Tom Helm, Steven Finn, Nathan Sowter and Mujeeb Ur Rahman. We still have Simmo, Eski, TRJ (I am not sure why he has not been selected for our first two matches) and Helm, but I am not sure if the rest of our squad can come particularly close to comparing well with our 2019 squad.

As well as TRJ, I am also unsure why Thilan Walallawita is not involved in our first two matches. TRJ has long been one of our better bowlers in this format, while Walallawita had a decent Twenty20 campaign in 2022.

I don’t think it was realistic to expect last night’s attendance to be of the level of previous London derbies. One obvious factor was the fact that the T20 Blast is no longer the only short-form domestic competition played in the summer, and indeed is maybe seen by some potential spectators (not least due to reinforcement by ECB) as not even being the premier short-form domestic competition played in the summer. As a consequence of The Hundred, another factor is that the Blast now takes place earlier in the summer, when people in education are less likely to be allowed/willing to go to cricket (as a result of having school/college/university the following day, or being expected by their family/self/education establishment to spend the evening studying, or being expected to be in bed by 10:00pm or earlier), and when other people may be less in the mood to go to cricket.

For me, the most inevitable aspect of last night was not the result or the attendance. As soon as I saw Surrey’s line-up, I thought to myself that they had so many bowling options, that it was inevitable that some of their players who had began their career primarily as bowlers would end up bowling either just 1 over or not all, especially as there were only 14.5 overs available to share amongst their bowlers. My prediction proved correct, as Tom Curran, Jamie Overton and Jordan Clark didn’t bowl, while Tom Laws only bowled one over.

Now I have got last night out of the way, I can finally concentrate on the match v Hampshire at the Rose Bowl!

[Peter H]

Stating the obvious, we aren't going to get many paying to watch at Merchant Taylor's. This whole T20 season feels very flat already, and we haven't even finished the second match (although it won't be very long as I type... :( ).