Middlesex CCC
The Panthers last hurrah ( or is it squelch).
A Gloomy scene
By Seaxe Man
July 16 2011
Seaxeman reports from a damp squid that was the Rose Bowl. We hear about the shortened match and then some interesting comments about this seasons T20 campain which most of us would like to forget
Royals v Panthers final T20 Group Match South Division. 15th July 2011.
Journey/Weather. Pointed the ZR south and left at 2.45pm. Just as well. Heathrow traffic on M25 between Junc 1a and Junc 12 the M3 turnoff was jammed but just about kept moving. Arrived 5ish. Still dry.
Weather alleged to be ok was cloudy. This proved to be a false dawn as by 6.30pm a faint drip/drizzle started which continued on and off until the players left the field after over 13 as it got heavier.
On the journey back, damp all the way up the M3 until reaching Middlesex Airspace at Heathrow, where predictably, the road was dry.
Match overview
As results panned out, Hampshire will meet Durham in the QF. We collect the Wooden Spoon. There was a decent sized crowd in, although not as stated by the PA bloke ' a full house'.
Hampshire
Adams
Dawson
Vince
McKenzie
Ervine
Mascarehas
Cork*
Bates+
Briggs
Wood
Tahir
Middlesex
Dex*
Rogers
Newman
Malan
JD
Scollay
Simpson+
Smith
Murtagh
Crook
Finn
Scollay came in for the injured McLaren. Hants won the the toss and elected to bat. There was a delay as the covers went on and play did'nt commence until 8pm. A truncated match of 18overs per side. The Power Play was reduced to 5 overs.
The two Steve's were entrusted with the PP overs. Crook from the Northern End and Hi-Fi from the Pav End. Of Crooks 3 overs, the first two were pacy, he kept the ball up and went for only six runs.
However in the third, he started pitching short and Adams hit a 4 and two 6's before when attempting another maximum, Scott Newman took a fine swirling catch in the deep. This over went for 17 and a wicket.
Hi Fi conceded 3 fours in his two over spell.
Powerplay overs 1-5
1. 3
2 12
3. 15
4. 21
5. 38 for 1.
Overs 6/7/8 were bowled by Murts and Dex. Murts took heavy punishment in over 8, conceding four 4's as this over went for 21. Score 67 for 1.
The final five overs 9 to 13 were bowled by Smith/Dex/JD/Dex/JD. In over 10. Murts took a fine catch in the deep off Dex to dismiss Vince who had carried on in the same vein as Adams/McKenzie. Anything short was punished. His replacement Ervine did likewise until the heavens dictated an end to proceedings.
Score 116 for 2 off 13 overs. The crowd hung around in the dry awaiting a possible 5over slog. Had one occurred. Looking at the Hants scoring rate of 9 an over and losing only two wickets, it would have been a daunting D/L score methinks.
T20 campaign 2011 - Panthers
Epilogue
The T20 squad. Built around a nucleus of senior players with a large contingent of fringe players plus oversesas T20 man Ryan McLaren.
Before we got going. Berg was ruled out followed shortly by Malan for most of the campaign. Two huge losses. Dex/Newman/Simpson were pretty well ever present and Murts/Rogers played a decent number of games. The fringe players found the step up difficult. The ECB allowed Hi-Fi to join the party from time to time.
Batting Powerplay Overs 1 to 6.
The bowlers have become cuter during this period, with spinners and slower balls widely used. So scores have dropped a bit, but 50 for 2 ain't bad. We seldom reached those heights, usually having lost too many wickets with too few runs on the board to post a demanding total. Stirlo probably our only early batter who could clear the ropes regularly. Unfortunately, too often he found the lone fielder.
Middle Overs. 7 to 16.
Here you could reckon the oppo would take pace off the ball with spin. Usually a nemisis for The Middle, slowing the rate and wickets falling. Richmond and the KIA Oval two good examples.
At the death overs 17 to 20.
We were seldom able to accelerate against the oppo's bowlers, who either with sheer pace (Nannes) or slower balls and yorkers pre-empted that. Usually as well, apart from the KIA Oval, too few wickets to play with.
Bowling
Both in the PP and in the 'at the death' overs, had extreme difficulty in reining in the oppo. Our most successful spells usually came in the ' middle overs' where Tom Smith and Dex often did a fair job.
Fielding
Ground fielding better than last year overall. The catching. Worst game was Gloucs at Uxbridge in the record opening partnership and subsequent record domestic T20 score.
The points.
To end on a brighter note. Bizarrely the 6 points were gained against the South Group qualifiers 3 away and 3 at home. The commendable win at Hove game 4, gave hope but we then lost the next four, before our final win at Uxbridge against Kent. At least we finished the home games on a high with an exciting tie at Southagte against Somerset.
Attendances
Despite our onfield travails, the 8 home games were well attended, with only the Kent game at UXB rain affected. Something like circa 62,000 wached our games. With the 22,000 at SJW v Surrey the highest anywhere.
Stattos
In Kent's total of 149 at Uxbridge, there were no extras. Rare in any match.
Gloucs 254 fro 3 at the same venue is a domestic record. As is the opening partnership of 192. Plus the two centurions Kevin O'Brien and Hamish Marshall.
Our 195 at Taunton in a losing cause was our best score ( a winning one usually) and our lowest recorded score of 102 occurred at Richmond. This contrasted with our best score the previous year at the same venue.
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2011:07:18:19:01:58 by BarmierKev.
The good thing is that our involvement is now at an end for this season.
As I have said on another thread I sincerely hope the hierarchy has learnt from this and we will see a vast improvement next year. We had big attendances for our home games and in particular, the Middlesex diehards like myself who watched most of it deserved better.
Hopefully our Twenty20 campaign will go much better in 2012. Shame the T20s have finished - it's the only hope I have of seeing the Middle on the tele...perhaps we'll get a pro40 or two...
So who was the player of the campaign? Dalrymple or Dex? Tough one given the performances...
Had I given everyone marks out of 10 Dalrymple would have got 2 (so by the way would Murtagh, who seemed to avoid criticism. Well as he is doing in cc his T20 returns were 2 wickets for 267 runs at an ave of 10 an over)
Dex was best player.
I have been keeping my own running total match by match. My figures for Murtagh differ by 4 overs and 24 runs, and Dalrymple by 2 overs and 25 runs, which is exactly what their figures were on Friday, so I guess ECB site is missing last round of matches.
Returning to the subject of this article, Middlesex's batting statistics can be viewed here, our bowling statistics can be viewed here, and they can be compared to the national batting and bowling averages, although to find our batting strike rates and boundary tallies, Cricinfo has to be viewed. With regards to who was our best player Fletch wrote on Twitter on Friday night "Just heard that the rain cloud over the RoseBowl 2nite is in line to win Middlesex's t20 player of the year award after earning us a point!". However, in terms in players, I suppose that Neil Dexter did OK with 236 runs, eight sixes, 12 wickets and an economy of 6.85, as did Tom Smith with 110 handy runs, 12 wickets and 10 catches. Scott Newman (our highest runs scorer with 314), Steven Crook (94 handy runs, 17 wickets, bowling strike rate of 15.23 and bowling average of 21.43, the last three of those statistics making him our best player in that category), Ryan McLaren (136 handy runs and 14 wickets) and Steven Finn (our most economical bowler with 6.25) deserve mentions too. Jamie Dalrymple's statistics weren't particularly impressive, although he did well in our sole home match on TV, which was v Surrey at Lord's.
Quite an eventful journey with my friend (Hampshire supporter) unfortuantly being stopped by the police on a quiet road near the ground due to being on his mobile. Ooops, a 100 pound on the spot fine, 3 points on license and quote: "another 300 on my insurance". Added to our earlier losses, not looking good.
Onto the cricket, we decided only thing to do was to try to redeem ourselves with a highly ambitious bet on Middlesex at 11/4, my friend stating that he didn`t care if Hampshire lost tonight because they are going to win the tournament outright.
After the drizzle, the cricket eventually started, good sized crowd in. Good early overs, but then Crook takes a pounding in one over. The crowd around me really enjoying themselves, I`m looking fed up and my mate appears to have forgotten about the bet, and now cheering every four and six. But then, shock horror, Newman takes an amazing catch and I cannot contain myself with a big cheer and a few puzzled looks from the assembled meatheads near my seat.
Needless to say that Hampshire then press on until more rain. In the break I walk around and the highlight of the day for me, say a few words to Tim Murtagh and shake his hand. Top bloke, big hands.
Looks like the game will restart but then more rain, and finally, around 10pm, another announcement and the game is off. Phew, think Middlesex would have lost from the position Hampshire were in. 1 final game of cricket with some assembled kids and I take it a bit too seriously, 1 sumptous drive knocking over somebodys beer. Right, home time and try and explain to my wife where I have been for the last 14 hours.
At the risk of sounding horribly pious, I don't find it at all unfortunate that someone gets nabbed by the police for using a mobile phone while driving. The unfortunate bit was that the phone was being used in the first place. I almost got knocked over on a zebra crossing by some pillock with one hand on his phone (I had some suspicions as to where the other hand might have been) and his mind somewhere else completely. That's one of the reasons I feel rather strongly on the subject.
Adelaide
Declared at 8,460. This may be immediately threatened by the QF v Durham coming up at 5pm on Sunday 7th August.
Mind you concluding at 7.45. Not sure how many Durhamites will fancy the round trip journey of about 700 miles.
I agree on your sentiments re mobile phone usage, just to try to clarify slightly, my friend was actually trying to look up directions for alternative parking but unfortunatly was deemed to be in charge of a vehicle as despite being stationary, the engine was running. Still, he took it with good grace, because the law is the law and as you rightly state, the law is there for a reason.
Despite the events on the way to the ground and the rained off match, a strangely enjoyable evening and a much improved Rose Bowl from my last three visits. Just a shame that the ground is ruined by the awful transport links.
Adelaide
