By Way out West
July 5 2013

Way Out West describes his trip not quite Way Out East but how he filled his day and how the match unfolded for a famous Middlesex win and he he nearly caught some free ticket for Lords.

After a gap of nearly two months and the farce of the whole day, The Bristol Four become The Bristol Three and another attempt is made at watching a bit of cricket. The weather forecast is a little more promising this time.

The problem with these late starts is just what to do to kill the time. I potter around in the garden a bit, take my child to school, hang on, it’s still only 10am.  Some hours later it is time to get going and a tactical stop in Reading yields a 10oz Gammon Steak and I feel sufficiently fuelled up to get going.

The train journey is boring as only train journeys can be. A quick walk to The Warwick Castle and it appears that somehow Lisicki is still playing Radwanska despite being in the last set when I was watching it 60 minutes ago. A few people seem very excited when Lisicki wins, decked out in their Wimbledon T-Shirts they don`t look like a T20 target audience.

But then again, what is a T20 target audience? As we walk round the corner to the ground it appears to be revealed that for tonight only, the target audience appears to be half of London. The queues are pretty big and despite my best efforts I have not been able to get my mate Mark to sort out a ticket in advance. A quick scamper to the North gate and I join another large queue and manage to get him one.

Into the ground and we take our pew in The Tavern, it is very full all around and there is a pretty good atmosphere though it appears most are here to talk about work. It is announced that Essex have won the toss and will bat causing groans in our party. All around people continue to ignore what is going on and carry on their fascinating conversations.

Rutherford and Pettini get things off to a flyer. The “surprise” of a spinner bowling the first over is really old hat now and I don`t know why we bother. It would be more of a surprise to the openers if a fast bowler rocked up first. The attack continues and TRJ gets some fearful stick before trapping Rutherford last ball of the over to save some pride.

Here follows the key period of the game. Ravi bowls the last over of the power-play and a fine one it is too, yielding just the four runs. Voges follows up with a good one at the other end but then a pretty bad tactical decision in my view and Rayner is back on. Hindsight would suggest that it was so that the two aforementioned spinners could change ends but he bowls a poor over conceding fourteen runs and the momentum swings back to Essex. Ollie is something of an enigma to me, he definitely has his plusses but I will never be convinced that he spins the ball anywhere near enough to be a real threat.

Luckily Ravi is back on and we get to see a real top-quality player in action. This lad is the real deal. Are there any better spinners apart from Swann operating in England at the present? No. If he doesn`t play for the full England team within three years there will be no justice. Flight, control, turn, he has the lot. The twin left-arm spinners tighten things up massively and wickets start to tumble so that at the end of the fifteenth over Essex are 115 for 5. This still seems pretty decent but considering they were 63 for 0 after 5 this is a big improvement.

Considering all the spin bowled a casual observer would assume that the over-rate would be perfect. However, something has gone wrong somewhere along the line and it is a mad dash to get the overs in. Rayner, Malan and Stirling throw together all sorts of bowling that could be best labelled the good, the bad and the ugly but we manage to get through relatively unscathed and with the bonus of two more wickets thrown in. Napier comes in at nine which seems far too low and his 24 off 9 balls allows some late momentum and Essex to a final score of 170 for 8. The chatter in our section continues to be about anything but cricket but in our small group we opine our satisfaction at a good salvage job. We made very good use of the spinners and that is something Essex are short on. Essex were on their way to 200 originally and are a good 15 short. Possibly.

After the shock announcement of Malan as June Player of The Month it is time for the Middlesex Innings. Malan seems buoyed by the prize and gets after the bowling early. Stirling isn`t getting much of the strike and seems becalmed, eventually being dismissed for a tame 5 off 11.

Denly joins Dawid and here follows a really pleasing section of play where they keep things ticking along very nicely without ever looking threatened or taking any overt risks. The run rate is under control and we appear to be cruising. An earlier catch in the crowd had won the lucky fielder four tickets to the T20 finals day. This might explain the following as a Malan Six comes booming into The Tavern two rows in front of us. There is a mad dash and it appears to hit a David Dickinson lookalike on the shoulder before being gratefully snaffled on the rebound by a man in our YB40 kit. This brings a few cries of “cheap as chips” and a lot of abuse for the poor lookalike and he later melts away from the scene.

Malan continues to make merry before finding Greg Smith on the boundary just in front of us. The catch seems clean but they refer it to the third umpire before he confirms it. Malan departs for an excellent 86 off 55 balls. I would like to say he gets a rousing reception but I don`t believe 80% of the crowd even notice. Or care.

Voges joins Denly and they have things well under control before a sudden tight over from Tait who up to now has only impressed with his yellow shoes. This leaves six from six balls and after a four off the first ball, Voges perishes run out attempting a second that would seal the win. A dot ball follows to slightly increase the tension before Rosso seals things with a four.

The result never really seemed in doubt to me during our innings as we seemed to pace the reply so well but the bare facts would suggest it was a tighter game than it was. It was great to see a near 20,000 crowd even if half don`t seem interested in the actual game. I am not sure how these funds are allocated between MCCC and MCCC but I hope we are getting a good financial boost out of it all.

Two obvious Man of the Match contenders in Dawid and Ravi but I will opt for Patel as his spell came at a massive time and completely changed the momentum