Hampshire v middlesex 1st August | metro bank one day cup

[Sillypoint]

Fifteen in squad. No Malan. Who plays....

Mark Stoneman - Captain (11)
Martin Andersson (24)
Ethan Bamber (54)
Joe Cracknell (48)
Blake Cullen (19)
Jack Davies (17)
Josh De Caires (25)
Nathan Fernandes (18)
Ryan Higgins (29)
Luke Hollman (56)
Ishaan Kaushal (22)
Sam Robson (12)
John Simpson - Wicket-keeper (20)
Thilan Walallawita (32)
Robbie White (14)

[Sillypoint]

Hampshire look pretty light tbf! Lost a lot to the hundred

[Jonathan Winsky]

Other than the players Middlesex are known to have lost to The Hundred (Stevie Eskinazi, Max Holden and Tom Helm) and the players we have announced have not been offered new contracts (Toby Greatwood, Max Harris and Daniel O’Driscoll), the only players listed on our official website’s professional players page (https://www.middlesexccc.com/squads/middlesex) who we have not named in our squad for this match are Pieter Malan, Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones.

My sense is that not too many tears will be shed about Malan not being in our squad (had he played, maybe he would have taken the opportunity to shed off his disappointing form, or maybe he would have - to use Australian cricketing terminology - gone back to the shed early). However, his absence means that we are yet again not using our entitlement to field an overseas player, and that we will potentially come up against opponents in this competition who will be using their entitlement, depending on whether Malan returns to our side (or if we sign another overseas player) and also depending on our opponents’ team selections. I cannot find anything in the competition regulations (https://resources.ecb.co.uk/ecb/document/2023/03/31/5b6de1b0-abea-4015-9620-7705542de999/3-Playing-Conditions-One-Day-Cup-2023.pdf) saying whether teams are entitled to field one or two overseas players, so either I have not searched hard enough or the answer is not given in the regulations.

I expected that Murtagh and TRJ might have a chance of playing in this campaign, but at least it means that Ethan Bamber, Blake Cullen and Ishaan Kaushal are all in contention to play. Admittedly, Murtagh only played one match in this competition in 2022, while TRJ didn’t play any matches, as he was required to carry drinks at The Hundred. Cullen has a good reputation, so it will be great to see him return after his opportunities in this and previous seasons have been restricted by injuries. Kaushal will be hopeful that this competition will see him make his first-team debut.

Joe Cracknell, Cullen, Ryan Higgins and John Simpson (and also TRJ if he plays at any point) will be keen to make a point to the teams at The Hundred who have signed them in the past but have not done so in 2023. Mind you, if they or their team-mates do too well in this competition, then they could be suddenly brought into this season’s Hundred if someone drops out!

As we nearly qualified for the quarter-finals of this competition in 2022 (we narrowly lost our first and penultimate group matches, were heavily beaten in our final group match, but recorded a five-match winning streak in between) and ended our T20 Blast campaign in 2023 with two wins (or three wins from our final four group matches), maybe we will have half a chance of getting close to a top-three finish in our group in this campaign, especially as some teams will be weakened by The Hundred more than we have been.

Hampshire have named a 13-man squad for this match (https://www.ageasbowl.com/cricket/news/match-preview-hampshire-v-middlesex,-metro-bank-one-day-cup/) consisting of Nick Gubbins (captain), Toby Albert, Keith Barker, Ben Brown, Scott Currie, Aneurin Donald, Joseph Eckland, Ian Holland, Eddie Jack, Dom Kelly, Fletcha Middleton, Felix Organ and Tom Prest.

[Sillypoint]

Decent start from middx. Cracknell batting well and taking his twos form with him. Lesson to be learnt there

[Erskine]

If we actually want to win a trophy why is Toby or Murts not playing
Always need to win the first match

[Sillypoint]

Especially with Cullen pulling up again. Poor lad

[Jonathan Winsky]

It is difficult for me to comment on this match, as I was too busy at work today to pay much attention to the score, and the closest I got to seeing any action after I arrived home was when the status of the match (to apply the terminology used by the stream) changed from ‘delayed’ to ‘ended’.

I am not sure what to write, other than stating the obvious about it being great that Joe Cracknell and Ryan Higgins scored fifties, Luke Hollman put in a good all-round performance, and Ethan Bamber bowled economically.

As I previously wrote, Blake Cullen as well as many Middlesex supporters will have been hopeful that this competition will have seen him stay fit and show why I wrote that he “has a good reputation”. Therefore, it is sad to see that he has another injury. Ishaan Kaushal will have been hopeful that if this competition sees him make his first-team debut, then it would have been in better circumstances than due to an injury to Cullen.

[Sillypoint]

Not sure we picked the right team for this fixture. Hollman bowled v well and got the right pace for the pitch. Cracknell and Higgins with the bat but just lost wickets everytime we tried to pick up momentum

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Who else could we have picked? Apart from the dreadfully out-of-form Malan, every other batsman on the staff and available played.

[adelaide]

Who else could we have picked? Apart from the dreadfully out-of-form Malan, every other batsman on the staff and available played.

Robbie White? De Caires higher up the order? TRJ as a batsman? - not sure why he is not playing anyway. I wouldn't play Murts - at some point we have to give youth a chance

A disappointing start to a white ball competition that we should do well in because we are so poor at white ball! From what I saw, the bowling looked respectable for the most part but we were trying to defend too little. Hampshire's heavily depleted bowling mixed it up well, including one of their 17 year olds (when did we last play a 17 year old - at some point we have to give youth a chance) and probably had the best of the conditions.

Robbo's wickets had made it interesting and we don't know whether Albert would have batted.

[Sillypoint]

Daft comment from me but the DLS seemed quite harsh! Does it take into account whether the batsmen are set? They'd lost two quick. Seemed quite generous for them to win by 18 in the situation I saw....

[Sillypoint]

This is true! I just don't think we mix it up. Open with Cracknell, Higgins then have Hollman, jdc, Davies then bring in the older guard.... Just experiment! We just seemed to sleepwalk through the t20s hoping to come good. Guarantee the next match we'll take the same approach but just swap out Robbo for Malan

[Paul W]

One thing DRS can't take in to account (nor should it) is that Hampshire had three inexperienced teenagers still to bat, DRS doesn't know if the next three batters are Pujara, Stokes and Buttler, or Tufnell, Panesar and Murtagh, so it will spit out the same par score regardless.

In to August and Robbie White (age 27 and uncapped) has just one first team match in the championship, which produced 3 runs in two innings. Will he ask to leave (a year left on his contract), or will he be hoping the rumours John Simpson might be going to his native Lancashire are true, offering him the prospect of more first team opportunities next year?

Several times Kevin Hand informed us Middlesex won five out of eight matches last year and it wasn't enough for us to progress to the next stage, so we can only afford one loss out of the next seven to be sure of progression.

[Paul W]

Obviously I meant Duckworth Lewis- not DRS!

[adelaide]

to August and Robbie White (age 27 and uncapped) has just one first team match in the championship, which produced 3 runs in two innings. Will he ask to leave (a year left on his contract), or will he be hoping the rumours John Simpson might be going to his native Lancashire are true, offering him the prospect of more first team opportunities next year?

I'm also wondering when Thilan is going to get a match. That neverending story about getting his UK passport then he gets selected less often with a passport than he did without. Though as Moriarty and (particularly) Virdi don't get much of a look in over the river perhaps it is just a more general thing these days about spinners who don't really bat.

[Paul W]

I remember one year when he was still a teenager (possibly even as early as 2016, bearing in mind he's now 25) Thilan Walallawita got about 80 wickets (yes, really) in all forms of second XI cricket (of course there were more matches then- but that was friendlies, 4 days, 50 and 20 over combined) and if he had been qualified then he would have walked in to the fist team on merit.

He's never really lived up to that stellar second XI season, but as he had to wait so long to qualify, I thought he was due a season where he was given plenty of opportunities so he could catch up on several years missed when he wasn't qualified. It's true his first team record isn't great, but I do think Richard Johnson should have given him the nod ahead of Nathan Fernandes (who could easily have waited another year) in T20, so that we could find out once and for all if TW was good enough.

It does feel like he's been 'Sowtered' by the coach. Richard Johnson isn't the only coach that does this. Once he's decided someone has to go, there is no way he'll pick them, because the last thing he wants is a 5-20 performance from Walallawita to muck up his future plans when his current spin favourites are Hollman and de Caires. If a third spinner is needed I doubt Walallawita will get that chance- it'll be Fernandes.

[Sillypoint]

I always feel Thilan isn't that switched on when I watch. Thinking about the bonus point batting thing... seems to always field fine leg too.

Guess we never see how these lads train which might be why coaches have certain opinions. Someone like Andersson must be solid to always keep getting more opportunities when often his actual performance doesn't merit it

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Very hard to see how Thilan gets a gig. We played three spinners yesterday, all of whom are genuine batters as well, and they all bowled well and took all the wickets to fall. Fernandes is another who is primarily a batter who also bowls. Thilan is a one-dimensional option who has not made a sufficient impact to justify his selection at present,

[MIDDLE EXILE]

With, Blake, Tom, Toby, and Murts all excluded from the squad to play Surrey tomorrow Ishaan Kaushal looks set to make his List A debut for the county.

[Erskine]

How can we expect to progress in the tournament leaving out our best seam bowlers. If we have been eliminated then rest them !

[Jonathan Winsky]

There doesn’t seem much point in there being a thread about tomorrow's match v Surrey at Radlett due to it being forecast to rain all day. At least Middlesex are set to get their first point on the board! However, an abandoned match would mean that unless there are any further abandoned matches, we will have gone from playing just one Metro Cup match in 10 days to playing six Metro Cup matches in 11 days beginning next Friday v Essex at Chelmsford.

Maybe Ishaan Kaushal’s professional debut will come at Chelmsford. An alternative option for whenever we play our next match would be to give a rare outing to Thilan Walallawita, although admittedly our line-up already has more spin options than we know what to do with.

Hopefully it won’t be long before Blake Cullen is fit again.