Completed Carnage

By Big Harvey
April 16 2011

How often to Middx get 20 wickets in one day?  I have no idea. But today was one of those days.  We also get a account of challenges of our loyal fan who has endured 3rd World transportation systems to follow cricket. But enough about his journey today.  Please read this and celebrate a great day for Middlesex.  

Middlesex v Essex Day 

The train was packed to the rafters. I just about managed to squeeze on board.

No, you haven't stumbled on one of the accounts of my adventures in India and Bangladesh, where I followed the World Cup, mainly by train. Train travel there was pretty much stress-free and perfectly civilised. I'm referring to the 0813 Bristol Temple Meads to Swindon, which I boarded on impulse after the 0800 to London Paddington – my train to today's game - was cancelled. My plan was to change at Swindon, which is served by London-bound trains from Cheltenham and South Wales, as well as just Bristol and the West Country, thus possibly getting me there quicker.

After passengers from Keynsham and Oldfield Park had further added to the crush however I gave up on the idea, and bailed out at Bath to await the 0830 from Temple Meads that I would have caught anyway had I not foolishly joined the crush on the local service.

Anyway, I was served well by London Underground and made it to Lord's on time to see the teams take the field for Essex's reply to Middlesex's first innings score of 277. The weather, although slightly warmer and brighter than yesterday was still overcast, and looked decent for bowling.

Middlesex looked as if they meant business, with attacking fields and lively bowling from Dial M and Colly. Both Godleman and especially Cook were given a torrid time, being made to play and miss repeatedly. Godleman looked the more confident of the two, but he succumbed first, edging Dial M to Simmo, the keeper, who took a brilliant catch diving to his left. He'd scored 12 of the 16 runs on the board.

Mickleburgh was the next to fall, also for 12, after being made to look a total dummy by Dial M. Having been set up by a couple of booming outswingers, he left one that nipped back sharply and crashed into middle and off stumps. 46-2.

Bopara joined Cook, and Finn was immediately brought into the attack. It was the reintroduction of Colly though which brought the next wicket, his first ball from the Nursery End skewering Cook (19) LBW. His first County Championship wicket for Middlesex, and what a wicket! 57-3.

The very next ball brought his second wicket, with Walker edging to Malan at second slip. 57-4.

2 in 2 balls

The bowlers really had their tails up now, and  Finn got in on the act too, trapping Bopara (13) LBW – 65-5, and it was soon 73-6 as Finn got his second, Rayner snapping up Foster at 2^nd slip.

The departure of Masters (8), pouched at gully by Malan off Iceman, sent Middlesex into lunch happy with Essex at 99-7. I headed off to Panzer's Deli for a very tasty but rather expensive falafel meal.

The players re-emerged after lunch and for the second day running the scoreboard promptly froze. Dial M made the first breakthrough, bowling Westley for 36 (113-8), and Chambers followed, pinned LBW next ball for a duck.

Reporter for Sunday doing some research

Only two more runs had been added when the Iceman struck again, trapping Wright (4) leg before to a yorker. 115 all out, and Essex were left with the indignity of possibly being asked to follow on.

It was a no-brainer of course, but with the scoreboard on the blink and no announcement, we were left in the dark as to whether Dex had decided to enforce it until the players re-emerged.

Thankfully this coincided with the scoreboard coming back on line.

Essex's agony was made worse almost straight away as Dial M accounted for Godleman (4) for the second time, AC taking the catch at 3^rd slip. 4-1.

There then followed a period of stubborn if rather unconvincing resistance from Mickleburg and Cook. Their partnership amounted to 58 before Cook (25) was caught and bowled by The Mighty Finn. One wit questioned whether he'd really dived for the catch or simply fallen over during his follow through, as had happened a couple times.

Cook may have had a productive winter bullying wayward and mediocre bowlers like Mitchell Johnson and Ben Hilfenhaus on flat pitches, but faced by Division 2's strongest seam attack, he was like a rabbit  in the headlights.

Finn also accounted for Bopara (4), caught at 1^st slip by Rogers (68-3). Bopara who turned down an IPL contract in order to try and win himself a Test place this summer must have wished he'd taken the money.

With 83 runs on the board came a dramatic moment. Rogers shelled what looked a fairly straightforward slip catch off Iceman, only for Simpson to superbly take the rebound to dismiss Walker (3). Rogers must have damaged his hand though, and he was replaced on the field by Toby Roland-Jones.

Shortly afterwards, Mickleburgh became the first batsman of the entire match to reach 40 runs with a streaky boundary off Iceman through third man (to take him onto 41), only to edge the next ball through to Simpson. 88-5.

Foster (0) joined the procession in Iceman's next over, Dex snapping him up at third slip. 88-6!

For the 1^st over after tea, spin was introduced into the attack, and I got my first look at Ollie Rayner. My initial reaction was that he bowls with a disconcertingly bent arm. Closer examination revealed however that the arm stays bent, and certainly doesn't discernibly straighten it during the delivery, so no problems with legality. The only problem in fact was that he was spraying it all over the place and went for runs galore, but maybe he was just having an off-day. Still, he contributed valuable runs yesterday, and had a role in the next wicket, holding onto another slip catch to give Iceman his fourth wicket of the innings and sixth of the day, Masters falling for 18.

At 114-7, an innings victory within 2 days looked on the cards. However a battling partnership between Wright and Westley began to develop. The clouds lifted, there was glorious sunshine, and the ball – approaching 50 overs old - was swinging less.

The partnership had become the biggest of the match so far when the return of Dex into the attack induced an edge from Wright (27) through to Simpson to break an extremely frustrating partnership of 73. 187-8, and big sighs of relief from the Middlesex fans.

In the next over Westley deservedly notched up his 50 with a sweep to the square leg boundar y off Rayner. He finally fell for 59, gloving a Finn lifter through to Simpson. 213-9.

Dex wrapped things up in the next over, castling Chambers for 15.

20 wickets in a day, all of them Essex ones!

Essex 215 all out, and Middlesex needing just 54 to win. While Wright and Westley were batting, Essex briefly looked as if they had a hope of posting an awkward 3 figure target for Middlesex to chase. However 54 should pose few problems tomorrow in what is forecast to be more batsman-friendly conditions than we've seen so far in this game.

As the Lord's groundstaff moved in to remove the brown stains of fake tan dissolved in the tears shed by all those Essex fans, my day finished as it started. Yes, that's right on a ridiculously overcrowded train on which it was impossible to type my match report!