It's a bit familiar

By London Leprechaun
August 24 2015

London Leprecahun gives us another remote view of the winning session against Durham.  A good win but over rate is still the talking point. And even the commentators are concerned.  At least this story had a happy ending.

With rain pouring outside and at Hove by the look of it this is  a day for lots of coffee, paper work and hopefully listening to a Middlesex victory charge.  The day gets of to a good start when I get a text to say that the scoreboard is now showing us as just minus 1.  Don is truly a wizard of Harry Potter and Gandalf proportions. Even the commentators are impressed calling it the miracle of Chester Le Street. But it is saying something when minus 1 is a triumph..  But we still open with Murts and TRJ. 

Victory important but we could have opened with Dex or even Ollie.

Out of interest again I start timing the overs. Now this is not 100% accurate because it relies on the commentators to commentate when the bowlers starts his run but I think it is reaosnably right. It takes 40 seconds between the end of TRJ first over and the start of Murts.  His whole over then takes in effect 4 minutes.  It’s another 40 secs to get back to TRJ bowling.  When I timed the actual time to bowl the six balls;  Murts takes just over 3 minutes and TRJ about 3.25 minutes.  If you multiply his time by 16 that makes about 52 minutes.  So what are we doing with the other 8 minutes to get us into this minus position? Stop faffing about!!!

While doing this commentators remark on the number of Middlesex supporters here and how vocal they are.  Keep going guys. 

On the actual cricket front the first hour does not provide any great alarms. It sounds like a patience game.  A phone call then does the equivalent of a wicket walk as I come back to the commentary to see that Pringle is out.  And of course the overrate has slipped.  Stop faffing about!!!

I can’t get timing on the other bowlers because the commentators’ conversation is drifting – although in a very entertaining way.  Durham and Yorkshire commentators are good matches for our own KH and DT.  But Dexy continues his good match with getting Borthwick and the victory is getting closer.  Now all we need is somehow to rescue two points.  Especially as they have already abandoned at Hove.

When the eight wicket goes even DT gets concerned at the over rate. Bring spinners on to get it sorted.  Like we did at the Worcester game.  That gets more attention then a good catch by Simmo.

What is frustrating is that there seems little sense that the players are conscious of this issue.  Hard to tell from a distance of course but I've never had that sense of urgency in the field at other matches.

Soon after the 9^th wicket goes and now what do we do?  Hustle some overs before really trying to take the last wicket?  Why have two hard fought victories in the last two weeks possibly have the gloss taken of them. So what do they do now? Bring back TRJ. It is almost as if they think the title is gone and 2 points won’t affect 2^nd spot especially with Warwickshire fading. But that is not the point. How many more points could we lose if we have that attitude for the next three games?

A dodgy phone call interrupts my listening and by the time it is over the last wicket has gone.  Phone calls are wicket walks at home.  And another 5fer for James Harris.  He must like Durham like Onions likes us.  And very pleased that Dexy has had a good game. One of the good guys.

And a very good win – to win at Durham, even if they are imploding a bit.  Just get the you know what sorted. Also good to win early though I will miss the very entertaining commentary! And a nice early journey home for all our supporters up there.  Safe journey everyone and watch those train station concourses!

And just to make this a very good win it is official that Gandalf has got the overrate level.  So game on for Edgbaston.  But it still does not explain or excuse the continued strife we get into towards the end of matches. Stop faffing about!!!