Brave effort Tom

By The London Leprachaun
July 3 2011

The London Leprachaun reports from a couch potato angle of yet another defeat from a seemingly promising position. If you missed it last night you may want to find out how the game panned out and if you witnessed it last night you may want to relive the moments if you are brave enough.

It was a beautiful day– just perfect for a day in the Essex countryside, north of Chelmsford, bordering on Constable country, where the sky meets the sea and you can really forget about anything else going on in the world.

So in the interests of couch potatoes I resisted the temptation to check the live score when I got home , so this is a live if delayed report.

The ground is jam packed but little sign of pink. At the beginning the pundits all suggest we are dangerous because we h ave nothing to play for and are trying youngsters; not sure about that. Dangerous and Middx in the 20/20 are not words that have featured in many sentences this year.

We have won the toss and are bowling again. How many matches have we lost chasing this year? Than again how many have we won batting first! Anyway apparently Essex would have bowled again.

Maybe it was the right decision as we get an early wicket – with worst ball of Steve Finn’s his opening over; we leads to a commentary discussion about the knack of taking wickets – skill, learned or just innate.

Tim Southee comes in as pinch bitter. He tells us he supports Chelmsford Town FC. I am sure they are big in Wellington.

Then a Rossington misfield is followed by a neat catch, followed closely by Owaias Shah running himself out ambling along and not seeing a great direct (not crooked) hit from Crook – some things never change.  Decent start but Napier is batting at 9!

And then we get a maiden over from Crook, followed closely by Wheater hitting  MaClaren’s first ball for 6.  Wheater held us up winning the County Championship match and looks a decent player. But Bopara is being strangled and at the end of the Power play Essex are 36/3. That looks  good for us but we have been here before this year with good starts.

McClaren is bowling decently - since the 6 there is only just one boundary off him and that was an inside edge. This is closely followed by a “you miss I hit ball” and Wheater did just that – i.e miss.

The fielding is sharp and Middlesex are chippy; Simmo is very chirpy; Scott Newman is on the mike with a serious looking beard and is very happy with the position.  But I’m not happy with chasing anything.  Even though at 10 overs the run rate is less than 6.

Bopara is slow, Essex running is eventful, one chance ending with Dexter and Bopara both on the floor before Walker chips the captain straight to Paul Stirling.

While all this is going on Robert Croft is describing a stand off in their match against Somerset. They wanted to know whether Trescothick or Trego was facing the first ball,which would decide if he or a seamer bowled the first over.  Meanwhile Somerset wanted to know who was opening the bowling because that would dictate who faced.  A stand off ensued! Crofty asked if anyone knew the rules on who should have blinked first – the umpires did not know.

Cue Ryan Ten Doeschate with nine overs left – scary. Than Bopara thick edges to Simmo

cue Foster as Charles Colville says 120+ is necessary – he clearly has not watched our chases this year.

Essex spend the next few overs trying to turn singles into twos and between their shouting and Middlesex fielders it is getting very noisy. The regroup is working until Foster tries a slog sweep Tom Smith and we have another “you miss I hit” moment. 7 wickets. Maybe we should have kept Bopara or Foster in as this is the cue for Napier to join Ten D with 39 balls left. Mayhem may ensue, though Dexter’s next over is quiet and the skip ends with great figures of 1-16.

But time for the mayhem alert as Napier tees off with three huge sixes over the stands including one into the virtually into the river. That could be game changing even though McClaren gets him next over plumb lbw. Phew. But Ten D is still in and takes ten off the rest of the over and with Phillips another 10 of the next. Forty in three overs – we have been here before as the last over becomes rather chaotic – Ten D is out to a smart catch from MaClaren, and we get a ball that could have been a catch, should have been a run out, actually was two runs. The upshot is 140 to chase. Too many after them being 72-7 and we don’t have a Napier at No 9.

In the interest of couch potatoes I resist the temptation to check how the batting went, so I watch live as Paul Stirling lives adventurously but successfully for a bit.  As Adam Rossington opens a bit more sedately I realise that be and Stirlo’s combined age is only five more than Masters and four than Napier (or possibly the other way round)

Sadly that fact becomes irrelevant as Rossington plays on to Southee and Crook comes in as pinch hitter. There is certainly nothing predictable about the Middlesex batting order this year.

There is a huge lbw shout turned down, Words from Southee with Crook, followed closely by official words of warning to Foster. Crook skies nervously and the first ball of next over is clean bowled – clever tactics or luck?

Cue the bearded wonder Scott Newman and everyone goes a bit quiet as Middx try and calm things down until Stirlo goes for one big hit too many. It’s déjà vu for every run chase this year as the run rate starts to drop; we are in the usual position of needing to consolidate but bot not let the run rate get out of hand.  But they are ticking over the singles, until Dexter drawn forward, easily stumped of an impressive Philips.

Cue McClaren – time to deliver after he is dropped first ball, and totally foxed 2^nd ball and then Shah comes on to bowl and promptly gets Newman

Time to fast forward thro a close lbw for Simmo, a huge 6 from Scollay well over the marquee; closely followed by 3 powerful boundaries, followed by over ambition, and smart bowling leading to a catch behind; a miscue from Robson and a gallant hack from McClaren  to get the scores a little bit closer – a nine run defeat looked quite good in fast forward. Should have done that for the whole innings. It was of course helped by Essex giving away 6 penalty runs because of their slow over rate – not one of their team noticed that the clock had wound down at the 18^th over; the look of bemusement on Foster’s face when Wiley awarded the runs was priceless.

But in spite of all that Middlesex have lost the ability to win in this competition.  Let it not roll over into the other two competitions.

Oh and Crofty never got a definitive answer to his conundrum.