Wrong Colours

By Dingy Bags
June 10 2011

Some painful reading and a poor pun at the start. However, Dingy Bags reports takes some positives and gives a good description on a disappointing day again for Middlesex in the 20/20.

Shards of glass have been in the news at Lord’s this week but I’m afraid it was the Shah of class that won the game tonight. [I know that’s an awful pun but it’s late and it’s the best I can do.]

After punching my way through some unfamiliar North London roads and traffic I arrived in quite good time and took up position in the Lower Tavern, where this site was well represented. Good to see that Ken now attends cricket in knee pads. Lower Pav was convinced we would win, though a glance at the first eight in the Essex order suggested they had plenty of potential match-winning, six-hitting batsmen.

We won the toss and batted which at least meant that we wouldn’t be chasing 200+ this game. But, at once, disaster – Stirlo really middled one but largely upwards and Pettini made no mistake. In fact, there seemed to have been a bit of a time mix up: the game started at 6.15 but it was gone half past before we really started batting. Yet just as Scott Newman started to find the boundary, he was out, caught at square leg. Seaxe Man always stress the importance of the powerplay in T20 and statistics show he is right. So, 44-2 seemed well under par to him and the rest of us.

Rogers had started steadily and, like Newman, had just started to accelerate impressively and hit a six when he managed to feather one behind and the innings stalled again. 67-3, in the ninth. No one, in fact, made a big enough score, both Dex and Simmo following the pattern of getting going and then getting out. There was controversy when a clear six, landing in front of us a yard over the boundary, was signalled a four by the umpire, despite the Essex fielders signalling a maximum. We got the two extra runs at half time but not the six penalty runs that seemed to be in order for Essex going over time.

There was a lot of pressure on Josh Daley to smash the ball to the boundary in the closing overs and he did pretty well but, strangely, only three runs came from the nineteenth over. 150 seemed 20/30 under average but Beefy’s news at the interval, that it seemed to be the test wicket in use again, confirmed what the eye had suggested, that the wicket was stopping a little and there was some turn.

The fun started at the opening of the Essex innings. Bopara bopped one to backward point (excellent diving catch by Bill McLaren) and we were still laughing about that, and pointing out that Morgan had been scoring lots of runs, when Pettini edged Finn’s first ball behind. At this point both openers were out for 0 and both batsmen at the crease were on 0, so it was an amusing scoreboard. Walker got the board moving but Finn, fast and accurate in an impressive spell of whole-hearted effort, got him before the powerplay finished at 34-3. So we won the powerplay. Indeed, if it had rained hereabouts, we might have won on the D/L (heavy rain fell not far from the ground, to the North). But it remained fine and Shah, bristling with determination, was still there. He had his luck, four or five miscues could have gone anywhere, and two of his sixes dropped just over the boundary and the head of a fielder, but it was his day just as much as it wasn’t Stirlo’s.

Tom Smith bowled really well, getting 10 Doeschate lbw with the aid of a Beefy tactical and then Styris stumped after being hit for four the previous ball. He should have had a third wicket and it would have changed the game. Essex had not moved on much more from 88-5, and the asking rate had risen to 9 an over, when Foster slog-swept Smudger towards the midwicket boundary, only to be dropped coming in by a fielder I won’t name, especially since, now bowling, he was hit for fours off the first two balls of the next over by Foster. The whole feel of the situation changed in a couple of minutes and Essex were able to hit their way home quite freely, with Shah indulging in some rather peculiar gestures to the Essex crowd. It was spotted that he celebrated his match-ending six in the direction of the Middlesex boundary.

That innings and that partnership were the difference in this game but we were competitive for much of it. Finn and Smith bowled very well and we could easily have won this game, which is more than you could say about our first two efforts. As Patsy said, Shah is one of the most talented batsmen in county cricket. If only he had batted with that amount of determination and concentration more often for us in recent seasons.

T20 is fun cricket and this was enjoyable until near the very end. I enjoyed the company of those I have mentioned and others I haven’t, who know who they are. If anyone is going to Hove - let’s hope for a win.