v Middlesex LVCC2 @ Lords Wednesday 30 May 2007

Scorecard

Charminder Vaas is in for the home side according to the BBC - but not according to the side reported on Cricinfo!!.  No idea about ours at the moment but I don't expect many changes from the side against Gloucestershire.  The only doubt is Marcus Trescothick who may be out with tendonitis in his ankle.

The match can be followed on local radio.  At the moment it seems only to be via RealPlayer at the link below

Radio London - Middlesex CC

Well BBC London haven't started yet but the game seems to have - at least 3 balls have been bowled. Silverwood bowled those and the umpires took them off for bad light!! (Do they actually bother to check before they go out?)

Marcus starts and so Matt Wood misses out again and so does Mark Turner as Steffan Jones returns in his place.  The side is;

Trescothick, Edwards, Langer, Hildreth, White, Blackwell, Trego, Keiswetter, Jones, Caddick, Willoughby

Nothing happened at all for most of the Day as the rain kept them off the pitch until just after 5 when the weather let up and we had the opportunity of getting about an hour in.

Chris Silverwood seemed to be keen for the time but our batsmen didn't with the ball swinging all over the place. Edwards went LBW to the ex-Yorkshireman with only 9 scored but that wasn't it as the skipper then lasted only 6 balls and didn't score before being clean bowled by the same man.  Marcus went 10 runs later to Murtagh and White only stayed around for 5 minutes before he was caught behind off Wright!!  We finished on 36 for 4!!

If you want to see what a person at the ground - with a bit of a home bias - saw of the first day...here you go

The Janet and Ged show

Day 2

A big day for Ian Blackwell and James Hildreth to put this game back in a competitive mode.  Unfortunately, nothing seemed to have changed as far as we are concerned and Hildreth went without adding to the overnight score LBW to Richardson.  IB therefore had to look to Peter Trego to help him establlish something. 

1 run later and he was looking for someone else to help as Trego was LBW to Silverwood at 37.  But with Keiswetter at the crease it didn't help much because Blackie was gone by 43 as he sent a catch to Shah off Richardson.  Into the tail, but Murtagh took the young South African at 48 caught behind and Langer decided enough was enough and DECLARED at 50 for 8.

From a Somerset point of view, should he have declared?  Most definitely and it shows the kind of player he is because he decided not to follow a lost cause and to get his bowlers on the field before the pitch dried out in order to get amongst the opposition front line.

Unfortunately, his bowlers did not respond to the challenge and we have not got the early wickets that our skipper hoped for.  A lunch we haven't instigated the same kind of miserable performance from the 'Sex.  They stand 2 runs ahead of our first innings score with all their wickets intact.  Line and length eluded our attack and although we got tight bowling we haven't had the kind of penetration that Silverwood and Richardson managed last night and this morning.

There is now a 40 minute break for the pitch to dry out even more.  A frank talking to in the dressing room for the Somerset side and unless something changes.....a long day in the field today and probably tomorrow before we have to bat to save a game that we failed to create a chance to win in the first 2 hours.  It doesn't look hopeful and we may well have to rely on the Middlesex unit failing to capitalise rather than the formidable fighting defence of our own players.

It didn't get a whole lot better just after lunch as the Middlesex men started to accelerate away towards the 100. It did start to swing and although Caddick was still bowling too short, Jones looked to take advantage and had Godleman caught by Trescothick on 45 with 97 up.  That started a mini collapse which Willoughby initiated by taking Compton at 105, Shah at 117 and Smith at 125.  Joyce stuck around although Caddick did offer him more than one bouncer which he tried valiantly to hook to a fielder - a problem he's going to have to sort if he wants an international career.

Nash fell first, cheaply to Trego, at 161.  Joyce finally managed to flip a catch to Edwards off Blackwell at 169 before the woefully out of form Dalrymple ushered in Tea by whacking a daft shot to Jones off Trego.  Tea came with a much better situation for us.  Middlesex haven't pushed on the morning score enough.  They lost 7 wickets for 122 runs in the session and are only 125 ahead on a drying pitch at 175 for 7.

IF we can get them out for under 200 - 150-ish ahead - AND then occupy the crease for a day and more then we have a chance in this game and possibly even a winning chance.  It's a long shot but it's more likely than it was at lunchtime today!!

The next session is very crucial to the result of this game!!

The rest of the game is better handled by those who were actually there although the result wasn't what we wanted it to be...

From AG2

"Chris Silverwood was magnificent and by far and away the best bowler on view. I think he took 6 for 50 in our innings and the other bowlers, between them, took something like 5 for 350 on the day. And this was emphatically not an occasion when the stats told any kind of lie. Supreme line, generally pretty good length and consistently got the ball both to move away from the right-hander and to come back down the slope.

Kieswetter again played a dissappointing shot to get out. At least he waited until today to do it, rather than getting out last night. No doubt, he will learn with experience.

Much more dissappointing was Ian's dismissal. Like Kieswetter it was his second soft dismissal of the match. His lack of form in the long-game is beginning to concern me.

Trego got an absolute snorter from Silverwood, so no culpability on his part.

Langer got a pretty good ball from Murtagh and departed with the derision of the home fans ringing in his ears.

Cam and Hildreth then played excellently until lunch and for about 1/2 an hour afterwards. Then Cam followed a slightly wide one, which was swiftly followed by Ian's diffident drive, straight to gully.

Steffan then played enormously well. At the minute, you'd have to say Ian's place in the side would be as a bowler, and Jonah's as a batsman (!).

As soon as the new ball was taken, and Silverwood returned in grim light, it was evident that the end was likely to be nigh - and sure enough it was. The home fans in my section thought that Caddy got a rough decision. I wasn't so sure.

When they batted, Caddy's first over was indescribably bad. After that, he settled okay and bowled fair enough, but with insufficient menace. Willow was 'quite good,' but, again, insufficiently menacing. Trego bowled presentably in a very short spell and got the wicket.

Time to do a rain dance for tomorrow.

Overall, a much more enjoyable day and it was good to see us salvage pride and better still to see Hildreth play."

We fought and Hildreth and Jones played magnificently but that first innings just did us.  It left us far too muchh to do.  The last day they needed 130 ish and although Trego got 2 and Jones took another, they completed the required 138 and beat us by 7 wickets.  Not important but we do need to learn from it very quickly!!

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