Panthers On The Prowl

By Daria feat. Ruby
August 20 2009

Daria (feat. Ruby) report from Cardiff, where Middlesex took Glamorgan apart in the Pro40. You might well have seen it on the TV, but Daria (and Ruby) tell it how it was at the actual place. You'll learn more about the boys hair than you probably need to know, but it will be worth it. Great match report, folks. Well worth the read.

Cardiff seems like a nice place.  We saw more of it than we planned, in fact, because on Tuesday night we had intended to eat in our hotel but were warned by Lauren, the trainee manager, that "I'd go out if I were you."  Seeing as we were already in her debt for finding the missing TV remote for our hotel room and therefore sparing us the horror of Heartbeat with Welsh subtitles, we took her advice and went out to Cardiff Bay. 

This lead us to the first of three cheery taxi drivers who didn't like cricket (and one really miserable one who really didn't like it and thought something should be done about "all those five day games that end in a draw".  I nearly tried to explain that as Middlesex fans we would be delightful for a five (or four) day game that ended in a draw, but life's too short.

Tuesday was gloriously hot and sunny, but Ruby brought an umbrella anyway.  Maybe we'll get to use it at Swansea.

Arrived at the SWALEC at about 4pm and took our seats near the front of the Cathedral Road stand, almost in line with the wicket.  As I didn't get a programme, failed to take any notes at the time and could not properly hear the stadium announcements, the bowlers will be described in this report as coming in from "the end we were at" and "the other end".  Hope that helps.

Fearless Leader won the toss (no comment) and we batted first.  Jamie D was "unwell" (poor Jamie, he never looks his best on TV, unlike our Nicholas.  Ruby and I considered getting up a collection for some fake TV cameras in the hope that he would bat like that all the time.  It would even be worth all the many delays while a towel was brought out to dry his hair.  Possibly he demanded a comb as well, we couldn't tell.  If he will bat like that, we can forgive him anything.  Plus, of course, he’s very pretty.)

Nick opened with Dawid.  Rather worryingly, Dawid appears to have shaved the sides of his hair and grown the back.  In other words, he has a mullet.  We feel responsible for this, and would just like to say - Dawid, we liked the Hoff look.  We weren't teasing.

We had time to notice these aesthetic details because this game started v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-,y.  So much so, in fact, that after 2 overs we had a run rate of 0.6 and Sky were gleefully pointing out that our projected score was 51.

Nick and Dawid pootled away happily, with lots of drinks and towel breaks  (it was very warm, to be fair, but if wee Robson is exhausted at Swansea, that's why), in the face of some not particularly penetrating bowling and a lot of careless fielding.  The SWALEC, to be honest, is so small that in the powerplay overs, if you get it out of the circle than you're pretty much guaranteed a boundary.  That said, it took us a good seven or eight overs to really take advantage of the powerplays, which both Ruby and I thought was too little too late.  I know that both of these batsmen really wanted a big score, but they seemed at the beginning to forget that this was a limited overs competition.

A few streaky boundaries later and we speeded up.  We speeded up quite a lot, actually.  It was never pretty, but it was effective.  Glamorgan, it must be said, helped a lot.  Whether it was inexperienced captaincy, poor fielding positions, laziness or incompetency in the field (of which more later) we calculated that they had gifted about 50 runs of our eventual total, which, as we will see, would have made things a lot closer at the end.

The weird thing about this game was that when MIddlesex were batting, it felt like they weren't scoring even when they were going smoothly at nearly five an over.  When Glamorgan batted, we thought they were scoring all over the place when in reality they were doing nothing of the sort.  Pessimism glasses?

Dawid reached his 50 first, although the two of them were pretty much level all the way through, Dawid reaching his in 55 balls and the 100 partnership coming in the 18th over  - amazing, after the start they had.  Robert Croft  -  "isn't he retired yet?" I said, to the accompaniment of many glares from the Glamorgan supporters around us - was the best of their bowlers, which is probably not a good sign for them.  Nick followed soon after and we tried to remember the last time a Middlesex one-day side reached 100 without losing a wicket.  Anyone?

Do you have one of these in pink? 

Anyway, this report is too long already, so suffice it to say Dawid got out caught for 53 off the bowling of Cosker, and we brightened up considerably as we thought Shah might bring some excitement to the proceedings.  This he admittedly did, his brief cameo providing one glorious six over the end-we-weren't-at and a life granted when he was dropped in almost the same place by a very shamefaced Maynard Jr.  Owais got 36 off 59 and then departed and we assumed that Henderson or at least Berg would be nominated to speed up the scoring rate (a respectable 4.4 an over, I think) but it was a nervous and dejected Morgan who came to the crease, and we despaired.  Regular readers of these match reports will be aware that we are very fond of young Eoin and have been saddened by his loss of form this season.  He looked nervous the whole way through, although less so once he got one of the streaky fours that we seemed to get lots of and Glamorgan didn't, which was a testament to our fielding.

While Eoin blocked and acted cautious, Nick, who had reached the mid-80s , obviously worried that with only 8 overs to go he would have to get  a move on and not keep trying to run it in singles.  So he hit a couple of fours, and, emboldened by this, once he was on 94 he hit an admittedly lovely six right into our stand.  I just hope that this knock will give him the confidence to play like this all the time.  Nick's always struck me as someone who perhaps thinks himself into a standstill - anyone who read his fascinating blog on Cricinfo last season would know what I mean - but he is undeniably talented and I'll be delighted if this is the turning point for him.  Century gained, he carried on in the same vein, merrily hitting boundaries until he went for a six too far and was caught by Gibbs off Allenby for a well-deserved and very well-received 121.

Following this, fortunately common sense prevailed and Tyron came in with 4 overs to go.  He wasn't in his most expansive mode but combined well with Eoin to guide us securely to 254-3 off the 40 overs.  Somewhat better than 51, I think you can all agree.

During the innings break it got very cloudy and dark, but the floodlights at the SWALEC are very good and the threatened rain did not materialise.  The new umbrella stayed in its bag. 

Glamorgan opened with William Bragg (yes, seriously.  My suggestion that the PA played Accident Waiting to Happen when we got him out was laughed off by my audience) and Gareth Rees.  Glamorgan's team seem to be either very young or very old.  This was the young half.  They started very well  - Burton opened at the end-we-weren't-at [River Taff end I think it is called – ed] and went for 11 off his first over.  As the very helpful Sky comparison screens showed, they took 1.2 overs to get the 15 it took us about six overs to get.  Tim had slowed things down at the other end and Henderson replaced Burton after two overs. Two quick wickets  - Bragg by  Murtagh and Allenby, his replacement, by Henderson - had Glamorgan on 41-2 and needing almost seven an over, but the next man in was Herschelle Gibbs which meant that was eminently gettable.

However, Tyron, who was in a bowling rather than a batting mood, dismissed him for just seven.  Rees, the other opener, was bowled by an otherwise quiet Malan to bring to an end a dangerous partnership he had formed with Tom Maynard; they got Glamorgan from 56-3 to 145-4 in the next eleven overs.  A brilliant run-out from Morgan, almost on the boundary and hitting the stumps directly, removed Maynard.  The rate was up at over seven an over now, despite the best efforts of those two, and when Berg clean bowled Wallace shortly after it seemed like too big an ask - 76 runs off the last nine overs but only four wickets in hand.

Udal put himself on at this point and slowed things down considerably, which of course was the last thing Glamorgan wanted as the run rate kept creeping up.  This led to some easy mistakes from the tail and Berg and Udal were both able to profit which brought the proceedings to an early end - Berg got Watkins, Udal got Cosker and Harrison and Dial M came back at the death and, with Scott, engineered the run out of Kruger before ten o'clock.    I imagine this suited everyone, as we all had an early start the next day.

To sum up - yes, I know this is a meaningless game in a meaningless competition.  That said, wins have not been so frequent this season that I am yet ready to be blasé about them.  It was, for once, a good batting and a tight bowling performance, and again, those have not come around often enough.  I was pleased to see the boys playing better, and even more pleased to see them take confidence from it. 

The one caveat I would mention is that, having missed a few games and only recently attended this match and the Pro40 at Canterbury, is that they are not looking as physically fit as they did at the start of the season, and that this should really be looked into by someone at the club  - whether this be Udal, Richard Scott, Gus, or whoever - because we have a lot of games in a short time at the end of the season and I worry that they won't be up to it.

That said, we won, and we won well.  Swansea here we come,