Middlesex CCC

Squad named-

Malan (c), Barber, De Villiers, Eskinazi, Fiin, Gubbins, Harris, Helm, Holden, Lincoln, Roland-Jones, Scott, Simpson (wk), Sowter, Ur Rehman.

[www.middlesexccc.com]



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 28/07/2019 20:41 by BarmierKev.

According to Bob Hunt, he is flying solo for tomorrow afternoon's match as Kevin Hand's family has suffered a bereavement. More important things than cricket.


Adelaide

Middlesex must feel confident ahead of this match after starting their Twenty20 campaign with two wins. Indeed, the match preview on the official website says it “was the first time they’ve managed back to back wins in the T20 format since they last won the competition in 2008”. I know our record in this format is bad, but it isn’t that bad, as I am pretty sure that whoever wrote that intended to written that it was the first time since 2008 that we had won our first two matches of a campaign.

Unless AB de Villiers turns out not to be fit or there are any injuries I am unaware of, I doubt our line-up will be much different to that which beat Surrey at The Oval last night. Maybe Steven Finn will pay the price for conceding 75 runs in 7 wicketless overs in our first two matches. It would be nice if Dan Lincoln could be given his debut, although I imagine it would have to come at the expense of Nick Gubbins, as I can't see anyone else missing out.

Gloucestershire might be less in Twenty20 mode than us, as they are yet to complete a Twenty20 match, and are just coming off the back of a County Championship match that finished today. However, four caveats are that the one Twenty20 match they have played saw them reduce Glamorgan to 96-8 before the match was rained-off, that the Championship match they have just completed saw them thrillingly beat Worcestershire by 13 runs after the last 3 wickets fell for 3 runs which will have given them some momentum, that they will very much be used to Cheltenham due to tomorrow being the fourth successive match they will have played there in all competitions, and that I imagine a few members of their side for tomorrow will be fresh having not have played v Worcs.

Two curiosities about Cheltenham are why weekday Twenty20 matches have to take place while many people are at work, and why the Pavilion has two Stars of David. With regards to the former question, I have heard that the answer is that playing during the evening would cause the sun to set behind the bowlers’ arm at one end. With regards to the latter question, the answer can be found on an Australian website.

Likely the same team as versus the Mexicans. We have never won a T20 in Glaws. Our only win against them was at Fortress Uxbridge in 2017. A washout at Lord's and a tie at Cheltenham in 2017 the total of our success.

Plus we are now 7/1.

I'd assume that playing this in the evening would require floodlights as per the regulations and bringing them in for one non-televised game isnt economical.

A 5pm or even 5.30pm start would not require floodlights, surely and I think that matches with those start times are held at other non-floodlit grounds. The orientation of the pitch is the reason.


Adelaide

Gloucestershire have named a 14-man squad for this match consisting of Michael Klinger, Miles Hammond, Ian Cockbain, James Bracey, Ryan Higgins, Jack Taylor, Benny Howell, Andrew Tye, Tom Smith, David Payne, Chris Liddle, Graeme van Buuren, Chris Dent and Tom Price.

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adelaide
A 5pm or even 5.30pm start would not require floodlights, surely and I think that matches with those start times are held at other non-floodlit grounds. The orientation of the pitch is the reason.

Adelaide

. For those travelling down by road or rail 2.30 means a day trip without the cost of an overnight stay for most. Certainly trains back get iffy late evening

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adelaide
According to Bob Hunt, he is flying solo for tomorrow afternoon's match as Kevin Hand's family has suffered a bereavement. More important things than cricket.

Adelaide

I don't think I can bear the thought of A Bob Hunt only commentary, so must unusually I will concentrate on the test match, with cricinfo for score updates.

Hunt did a Gloucs/Middlesex T20 on his own a couple of years ago, and didn't even bother to read out the Middlesex team at the start, as it was clearly of no interest to him.

He brings an unwanted partisan football fan mentality to his commentaries, shouting at the top of his voice if Gloucs take a wicket, and laughing with contempt if the opposition drop a catch.

Different to, but just as faulty as Don Topley, so I'll give him a miss.

Looking forward to this, the best away day of the year. I've seen a fair bit of Dan Lincoln for Berkshire and hope he will be perform well today.

I'd planned to go this afternoon but forgot one key part of the package. A ticket. Nuts.

Hunt is a joke (that's Bob, not Jeremy).

His cries of woe when Dent was out first ball at OMT was clawssic though. I immedfiately thought of (was it?) Macduff discovering Banquo's body shouting "Oh, horror, horror, horror!".

Which in turn brought me back to doing Macbeth for GCE English, when one poor lad (not me) read the phrase aloud without the slightest intonation. Though a second one (again, not me) was even more mortified when his pronunciation of the word "@#$%&" demonstrated that he had never heard it before. "Someone take him outside and tell him" said the teacher, rather unkindly, though the gales of laughter from the rest of the class had done their damage by then.

Funny how a few seconds on the radio can trigger off the most obscure memories.


Adelaide

Despite Stuart Law saying he was confident AB would be fit he isn't, so Dan Lincoln makes his debut.

We won the toss, and bat first.

Genuine question - what is the purpose of that little fanfare which happens sporadically and for no apparent reason?

Years ago I thought it was used to herald a bowling change, but nowadays they seem to play it over the PA system every few overs at random times. It seems its only purpose is to herald a Pavlovian response of "weeeyyy" from the crowd, which sadly it does, every time.

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adelaide
Hunt is a joke (that's Bob, not Jeremy).
His cries of woe when Dent was out first ball at OMT was clawssic though. I immedfiately thought of (was it?) Macduff discovering Banquo's body shouting "Oh, horror, horror, horror!".

Which in turn brought me back to doing Macbeth for GCE English, when one poor lad (not me) read the phrase aloud without the slightest intonation. Though a second one (again, not me) was even more mortified when his pronunciation of the word "@#$%&" demonstrated that he had never heard it before. "Someone take him outside and tell him" said the teacher, rather unkindly, though the gales of laughter from the rest of the class had done their damage by then.

Funny how a few seconds on the radio can trigger off the most obscure memories.


Adelaide

The word in question has been censored but was mispronounced as "war".

Quote:

chunkyinargyll
Despite Stuart Law saying he was confident AB would be fit he isn't, so Dan Lincoln makes his debut.
We won the toss, and bat first.

,
Thanks Chunky just changed my Know Your Cricket prediction.

HDO that excuse for a noise is in my Room 101. Dreadfully annoying.

Has Bob Hunt ever watched T20 cricket before? He seems to be amazed and surprised that wickets are falling regularly and that batsmen are holing out in the deep. He's reacting as if it's a 4-day game and we're batting too aggressively. Granted, our score isn't very impressive and we've lost a lot of wickets, but he doesn't seem to understand that hitting out, and potentially losing your wicket, is the name of the game. He also accused Lincoln of being "arrogant" for trying to hit boundaries.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 25/07/2019 14:52 by hdo.

Felt we were 20 too short after our good start, Weren’t those commentators annoying?

---

Barmy Kev
I'm only here for the tele

Quote:

BarmierKev
Felt we were 20 too short after our good start, Weren’t those commentators annoying?

Bob Hunt was. The other guy did his best to calm him down but to little effect.