By Chris Thomas
July 8 2005

Middlesex Crusaders will travel to Twenty20 Cup holders Leicestershire Foxes in the quarter finals of the competition following the draw made live on Sky Sports. he match at Grace Road will take place on Monday 18th July, starting at 5.30pm.

Although a tough challenge for the Crusaders, they dodged the daunting trips to both Surrey and Lancashire, and also avoided a Northamptonshire side that knocked them out of the C&G Trophy in May.

         

Furthermore, Middlesex should take heart from a Totesport League match against the Foxes at Lord’s last season where they defended a Duckworth-Lewis target of 135 in a rain-reduced 20 overs. Ironically, it was only two days after Leicestershire had defeated Surrey to become newly crowned champions of the shortest version of the game.

         

Nonetheless it will certainly be a stiff challenge for Ben Hutton’s side against a team that won five and lost only two of their eight group games.

         

Elsewhere, the Brit Oval, the venue for Finals Day, will stage the match between 2003 champions Surrey Lions and visitors Warwickshire Bears. Sky will visit Old Trafford for the showdown between highly fancied Lancashire Lightning and Derbyshire Phantoms, while in the remaining game an all-Midlands division battle will take place between Northamptonshire Steelbacks and Somerset Sabres.

         

Both semi finals and the final will be held on Saturday 30^th July in South London, and Middlesex will certainly be determined to be part of it.