Middlesex won the toss and Andrew Strauss had no hesitation in deciding to bat on what looked a good pitch, but the 'sex didn't get off to the start they would have hoped for. Paul Weekes was the first to go, attempting a single that was never on. Andrew Strauss was then well caught by Jeff Cook and Owais Shah cut straight to point, leaving us 44-3. A stand of 76 between Ed Joyce (61) and David Nash (50) steadied the ship. Some lustly blows from Simon Cook also boosted the score as the hard hitting bowler smacked 3 sixes. Ben Hutton also had an eventful innings- he hit a huge straight six first ball, got hit on the helmet second ball and was down for a few minutes and then he was unluckily run out 3rd ball. A score of 200 was never going to be enough, but at least we had given ourselves some hope after a poor Start.

Northants didn’t start too well either. Robert White was caught behind with only 15 on the board and tight bowling kept the score down. However, the introduction of Simon Cook to the attack boosted the score and Northants were looking good. Phil Jaques then miscued a drive off Chad Keegan and was caught by Andrew Strauss for 23, bringing David Sales to the crease. He combined with his Skipper to keep the scoreboard ticking over. With the score on 135-2 and Sales on 45, David Alleyne spilt a simple wicket keeping catch to add more gloom to the ‘sex’s day. Sales went on to post a half century and put on an unbroken stand of 142 with his captain to guide the Steelbacks to an 8 wicket victory with 3 balls to spare.

SCORES:

MIDDLESEX INNINGS:

Weekes run out 19
Strauss c Cook b Cawdron 9
Shah c White b Cawdron 8
Joyce c Phillips b Brown 61
Nash b Nel 50
Cook c Hussey b Cook 38
Hutton run out 6
Noffke not out 2
Alleyne not out 0

Extras 7

Total (for 7 wickets, 45 overs) 200

Did not bat: Keegan, Tahir

NORTHAMPTONSHIRE INNINGS:

Hussey not out 86
White c Alleyne b Noffke 10
Jaques c Strauss b Keegan 23
Sales not out 75

Extras 10

Total (for 2 wickets, 44.3 overs) 204

Did not bat: Cook, Penberthy, Cawdron, Bailey, Phillips, Nel, Brown.

RESULT: NORTHAMPTONSHIRE WIN BY 8 WICKETS

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