Metro Bank 50 overs v Notts 15th August 2023

[Paul W]

13 man squad named-

https://www.middlesexccc.com/news/2023/08/squad-preview-middlesex-v-notts-outlaws-metro-bank-one-day-cup

Stoneman (c), Andersson, Bamber, Cracknell, Davies, de Caires, Higgins, Hollman, Kaushal, Robson, Simpson (wk), Walallawita, White.

Fernandes, who has previously been included in 14 man squads is the one not named, reducing the options by one.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

He's unfit.

[wembleylion]

White for Davies please.

[Jonathan Winsky]

It seems unlikely that Middlesex’s line-up will be much different to what we have selected in our three completed matches so far, although it is not like we have an overwhelming amount of players on the fringes of our side who are both worthy of selection and available. We will have to see whether the result is much different to that of our three completed matches.

This is a must-win match, not only to keep our hopes of qualification alive, but also to prevent the final week of the group stage from feeling like a drag.

Nottinghamshire have named a 14-man squad for this match (https://www.trentbridge.co.uk/news/2023/august/james-keen-to-harness-outlaws-experience-of-must-win-matches.html) consisting of Haseeb Hameed, Calvin Harrison, Brett Hutton, Lyndon James, Sammy King, Tom Loten, Ben Martindale, Matt Mongomery, Dane Paterson, Liam Patterson-White, Tom Pettman, Dane Schadendorf, Fateh Singh and Ben Slater.

[Sillypoint]

Zombie Middx.... Its a bit sad and I really feel for the younger players being so poorly led. Culture is everything and either the messages are wrong or people have stopped listening.

[Paul W]

For someone who is unfit, Nathan Fernandes is playing for our U 18 side today.

I've noticed before that 'under 18 is a bit of a misnomer, as it appears to be anyone aged 19 or under. I suspect it's done on school years, meaning provided you were still 18 on 1st September 2022 you are still elagable.

Makes sense, because Robson has shown himself to be an adequate third spinner if needed, so Nathan might as well get a game somewhere else.

Notts won the toss, and have asked us to bat first.

Our line unchanged.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Apologies for the wrong information.I naturally presumed which of course one should never do.

[Sillypoint]

Can't complain. Asked Middx to think outside the box. Moved Andersson to six. Brilliant

[Sillypoint]

Higgins should bat three really! He's the best in the side

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Not at all, he's perfect where he is. and don't forget he normally has to bowl ten overs as well so we have to conserve his energy a bit. We could well be losing him in September when he's strongly tipped to make England's squad for the upcoming white ball series against New Zealand and Ireland.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

New record List A total against Nottinghamshire.

[Paul W]

Very well played Martin Andersson.

I guess there's a lesson there.

Bat someone at six in the order, and they will think like a number six, and bat like a number six.

Whoever ends up at 9 (de Caires today) is wasted, because you will only get a number 9 performance from them (who knows- if de Caires had opened, maybe he would have scored a 50)

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Who would you rather have bat at number nine?

[Paul W]

That isn't the point.

The point is whoever bats at 9 (be it Andersson, Hollman, de Caires, Fernandes, or whoever else you care to mention), is going to be 'wasted' in the sense they won't have the opportunity to make a hundred as Andersson did today. All the time he was batting at 9 you got a number 9's performance out of Andersson. Until this year de Caires was considered a top order batter- thus his batting potential can't be utilised if he is coming in as low as 9.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Ah.so you're just stating the bleeding obvious then. Someone has got to bat there and of course whoever it is has far less opportunity to go big, what about poor numbers 10 and 11, hardly worth them turning up at all if we follow your logic. It's all about the team, not individuals getting the batting order right is not a perfect science and needs to be flexible as we saw today.Of course numbers one and twp have more chance of scoring runs than number nine, try not to insult our intelligence with this type of nonsense,

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Nottinghamshire's number nine top scorer, how did he manage that?

[James Mitchell]

Ah.so you're just stating the bleeding obvious then. Someone has got to bat there and of course whoever it is has far less opportunity to go big, what about poor numbers 10 and 11, hardly worth them turning up at all if we follow your logic. It's all about the team, not individuals getting the batting order right is not a perfect science and needs to be flexible as we saw today.Of course numbers one and twp have more chance of scoring runs than number nine, try not to insult our intelligence with this type of nonsense,There is no problem disagreeing and stating your case strongly, but please avoid the personal insults.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

I am sorry James, I thought my comments were rather restrained.PW's heard a lot worse from me, no worries, I've slapped my wrist and will endeavor to reign myself in from now on. Well played The Middle and that includes all from 1 to 11.

[Jonathan Winsky]

I didn’t really follow the match, although I can nonetheless write about it with a great deal of authority considering it seemed to take a similar pattern to Middlesex’s match v Kent at Beckenham on Sunday, with the innings of the team who batted second beginning with some early wickets and the run rate falling behind the rate required, before the team who batted second ultimately lost by just over 130 runs. Thankfully, the result went Middlesex’s way on this occasion.

It was great to see that Martin Andersson did well considering the difficulties he had last season. It seemed possible that the signing of Ryan Higgins would threaten Andersson’s opportunities, and although that has indeed happened in the County Championship, Andersson remains a regular in our limited-overs sides. I am sure that Andersson preferred batting with Higgo, John Simpson, Luke Hollman and Josh de Caires than mainly batting with tailenders as he does when he comes in lower.

It is very handy to bat down to 9 and to have so many bowling options, although it is difficult for me to speak too highly about the balance of our side considering our first win of this campaign didn’t come until our fifth match.

We will have to see whether or not this win has come too late to give us hope of reaching the knockout stages.

[adelaide]

I am sorry James, I thought my comments were rather restrained.PW's heard a lot worse from me, no worries, I've slapped my wrist and will endeavor to reign myself in from now on. Well played The Middle and that includes all from 1 to 11.

Everything is relative, I suppose. Must admit that viewing the Kent thread was making me think of the Yorkshiremen sketch...

[John (Fingers) Fingleton]

Half a dozen more Middlesex wins like that and I shall have to eat my words. I had to break away for 2-3 hours in the middle to"attend" the funeral of one of my oldest friends/fellow club cricketers, but gladly caught the early and later stages.

It seems that Notts are Middlesex's bunny this year!

[Paul W]

Not at all, he's perfect where he is. and don't forget he normally has to bowl ten overs as well so we have to conserve his energy a bit. We could well be losing him in September when he's strongly tipped to make England's squad for the upcoming white ball series against New Zealand and Ireland.

No idea who was tipping Higgins to be in the squad to face New Zealand. It's just been named- and he isn't in it.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/cricket/66512824

I suppose there is always the Ireland games (yet to be named) as it may be virtually a Lions squad, so the big guns are rested before October's World Cup in India.

[Paul W]

Nottinghamshire's number nine top scorer, how did he manage that?

And that proves my point.

If you bat at number 9 you are too low to influence the result.

If he'd batted at 6, maybe he'd have made a hundred like Martin did.

If your number 9 is top scorer you aren't going to win a game chasing 300, as you need two big contributions from a couple of people higher up the order. Thus he was wasted (not utilised to his full ability) at 9.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Well he should have been in, the leading all-rounder in the country, and excellent in the white ball game, problem probably is he plays for Middlesex.I for one am still tipping him to make the squad for The Ireland games. Selectors tend to stick with some tried and tested names even when past their sell-by date.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Should we move the start time of Sunday's Match so as not to clash with The World Cup Final?

[Jonathan Winsky]

For as long as The Hundred is around, I do not foresee anyone breaking into (or returning to after an absence) England’s limited-overs sides without having recently played at The Hundred, unless perhaps if they were injured while the tournament took place or were already on England’s radar (which is why Ben Stokes is able to walk back into the ODI team).

I can’t be bothered to count the precise number of England-qualified players currently involved with The Hundred, but if all eight sides have 15 players with 4 overseas players, that would mean that 88 England-qualified players are involved. If a player is not seen as one of the 88 best England-qualified players at limited-overs cricket, it would be a surprise if they are one of 15 or so players to make an England limited-overs squad.

That is a long-winded way of saying that I would have been surprised had Ryan Higgins been named in either of England’s squads for their forthcoming limited-overs matches, as although he played in The Hundred in 2021 and 2022 and must have a good chance of playing in 2024, he has not played in 2023. Then again, if England take a look at a lot of fringe players for the matches v Ireland, maybe he will have a chance of playing.

On the subject of The Hundred, Max Holden seems to have lost his place in the Manchester Originals side. If he isn’t selected tomorrow v Trent Rockets, he might be able to play v Leicestershire at Grace Road on Friday, although there is no way he could play v Lancashire at Lord’s on Sunday due to Manchester Originals having a match that day. Tom Helm is not playing in Birmingham Phoenix’s match today. However, Stevie Eskinazi seems to be established in the Welsh Fire side.

I am not sure whether or not I would like the start of Sunday’s match to be moved, as although it would enable me to watch the football, it would be a late finish. I am still recovering from a weekend in which I was out on Saturday afternoon not far away in Watford and out for much of Sunday in Beckenham. A weekend in which I go to Stoke on Saturday and do not get home until late on Sunday would be even more tiring! Maybe it is just as well that Sunday could be the last cricket I see until April 2024. Middlesex v Lancashire is one of eight Metro Bank matches on Sunday and one of at least six to be at grounds with floodlights (Guildford definitely doesn’t have any, and I am not sure about New Road), so any number between zero and seven of the matches could change their start time.

[Paul W]

The other problem is that Sunday is the players sponsors event, which is supposed to start after the match finishes, and last about two hours.

That would lead to an event possibly starting at 9 pm and going on to 11 pm, which I suspect will be too late for many reasons (difficulty getting home on public transport that late on a Sunday- overtime for staff required to still be around- unhappy sponsors who've already had the date changed from two previous dates in June and September combined in to this one do on 20th August.

So it's a bit more complicated than 'Let's just start at 2 pm' A number of people might not be happy if that happened.

[MIDDLE EXILE]

Ok,forget it,sorry I mentioned it.

[Sillypoint]

Should be moved to later. Which means it won't.

[Jonathan Winsky]

I would like to think that if there was any possibility of the start time of any of Sunday’s Metro Cup Bank matches being changed, then I would have heard either realistic speculation that it could happen or confirmation that the start time of at least one match has been changed. However, I am not aware of any of this happening. BBC currently shows all eight matches as being scheduled to start at 11:00am.

Max Holden has tonight returned to the Manchester Originals side, so that has surely ended any possibility of him meeting the criteria to return to the Middlesex side for this competition, unless perhaps if we reach the knockout stages.