A good debut

By Rogers and out
June 23 2014

Rogers and Out gives us a first hand account of the latest T20 loss but with many positive points for the future. Thanks for braving fortress Essex for us.

Middlesex were edged out by the Eagles from Essex after an exciting encounter at the County Ground by two wickets with two balls to spare. A very encouraging performance from our young side looked like it might secure an excellent win, but the Eagles’ Tim Phillips, with his late barrage of sixes, ultimately saw our hosts to victory.

My only previous visit to Chelmsford had been for an early season friendly last year with a very sparse crowd in attendance. I’d been warned to expect an intimidating atmosphere this time,  akin to a football match at Upton Park, with a capacity 5,000 crowd expected. I therefore steeled myself with a few beverages with an old workmate in the town centre to prepare myself for evening’s proceedings, and just before heading for the ground, noticed that Costa Rica were on the verge of beating Italy thus consigning Roy’s boys to an early flight home.

The County Ground is reminiscent of a lower league football ground, with scaffold poles abounding in several of the stands. Nevertheless, I was pleasantly surprised at the view from my seat in the County Corner stand, although the price at £31 (including £2 booking fee) almost made the £50 or so to watch Fernando Torres fail to hit the target seem like value.

The spectators in the County Corner stand seemed friendly enough, comprised mainly of senior Essex lads and lasses, whose days of dancing around handbags in white stilettos had probably passed.

I took my seat at the start of the second over just in time to see Joe Denly caught and bowled by Tim Phillips with the score on seven. Essex had won the toss and put us in to bat, with Harry Podmore making his debut in place of Ollie Rayner as the only change from Wednesday’s win at the Gas Works.

Captain Morgan replaced Denly at the crease and opened his account with a maximum off that same Phillips over. Both he and AC looked in good touch as they kept the run rate up at around the eight per over mark. Moggy hit another six off Reece Topley and Mala hit some sumptuous cover drives to the boundary before Tymal Mills bowled him for 28 leaving us on 72/2 in the ninth over.

Dan Christian came in next, presumably to try to maintain the high scoring rate, but he departed in the next over, failing to clear Ryan ten Doeschate at deep mid on from a Topley delivery and we were reduced to 75/3. One of our heroes from Wednesday, Ryan Higgins, now entered the fray, but was less successful this time out, falling leg before to David Masters for seven from nine balls.

Eoin Morgan had continued to bat well, although Ravi Bopara had restricted our scoring with a tight spell of bowling. However, Phillips went for 17 runs in the 15th over, including three consecutive fours by Moggy. We were looking well placed on 115/4, when Essex captain ten Doeschate bowled the 16th over. Morgan dispatched his third ball to the boundary, but perhaps the key moment of the game came with the very next delivery.

Morgs clipped him towards the square leg boundary where Topley appeared to fumble. We chanced a risky second run, but Topley quickly recovered and executed a fine throw to ‘keeper Foster, with Morgan well out of his ground. His 69 runs had come from 46 balls including seven fours and two sixes. We were now 122/5, but our main man was out, and despite the best efforts of Dex and Simmo, only one more boundary was forthcoming in the rest of the innings. We closed on 153/5, which looked insufficient, given Essex’s powerful batting line up.

Our nemesis from the game at Lord’s, Mark Pettini, and New Zealander Jesse Ryder opened the batting for Essex, with Gurjit Sandhu bowling the first over from the Hayes Close end for us. After Pettini clipped the first ball for a single, Ryder was fortunate when he inside edged the next delivery just past the stumps.

Whilst Pettini settled in well with back to back boundaries from Sandhu’s next over, Ryder looked less assured. It was, therefore, no surprise when the Kiwi bad boy lost his wicket to the first ball of Harry Podmore’s first over, when he pulled him to the square leg boundary, where Ryan Higgins took a good catch with the crowd behind baying for him to drop it.

Tom Westley was the next Eagles’ batsman in but it was Pettini who continued to keep Essex up with the required rate, smashing James Harris for six in the fifth over. Although he hit Podmore for a boundary in the next over, Westley never looked comfortable and Dex bowled him in the seventh over for six, leaving Essex on 47/2, the vast majority of which had come from the bat of Pettini.

The dangerous Ravi Bopara replaced Westley at the crease, and some good bowling from both Dex and Ravi Patel was keeping the run rate down. Ravi got his reward in the tenth over when he found the edge of Bopara’s bat and Simmo made no mistake behind the stumps. Bopara had made ten and the Eagles were now 68/3.

Essex have a seemingly never ending supply of formidable limited overs batsmen and so Ryan ten Doeschate now came into bat. However, we were celebrating again in the next over when Dex had Pettini caught behind by Simmo for 42 (from 38 balls) and we were most certainly in the hunt with Essex on 70/4.

Ben Foakes joined ten Doeschate in the middle and the big hitting Dutchman attempted to prevent the run rate creeping up with several lusty blows. Foakes tried to match him, but was superbly caught on the long on boundary by the leaping Malan from the bowling of Dan Christian in the 15th over. Essex were 101/5 and Foakes made nine.

Keeper James Foster was next in and he perished from the first ball of the 17th over when Gurjit Sandhu took a sharp caught and bowled chance, leaving Essex on 113/6, requiring 41 runs from 23 balls to win. We looked to have a great chance of winning now and I’d sent a text to Kev saying that if we could get rid of ten Doeschate, victory would be ours. Not for the first time, and certainly not the last, I was proven wrong.

Unfortunately, I hadn’t factored Tim Phillips in to the calculation, and he proceeded to hit Sandhu for a six from the last ball from his erstwhile successful over. He then hit Harris for a four and a six in the next over, leaving Essex with twenty to score from the last two overs.

Harry Podmore bowled the penultimate over, and ten Doeschate hit his second delivery for six. However, the young man from Hammersmith showed great composure and snared his wicket two balls later, when Morgs took a sprawling catch in the covers.

Essex were now 141/7 with thirteen runs to get for victory from the final over with Gurjit to bowl from the River End. Unfortunately, Phillips was facing and he crashed the first ball over the ropes for six and took a single from the next delivery. More drama was to follow from the next ball as Tymal Mills was run out from a wide, but the sad news for us was the fact that Phillips now had the strike.

He ran two from the next ball leaving just three required from the last three balls. It looked all up for us, and indeed it was. From the next ball, Phillips smashed a top edged six over my and the rest of the County Corner stand’s heads and the Eagles had triumphed by two wickets to send the locals into ecstasy.

Whilst it was a slight disappointment not to win, I thought our young side acquitted themselves very well indeed. It had been a fine match, with a good effort with the bat by Morgan, economical bowling by Patel and Dexter, and some real promise by the young pacemen, especially Podmore. The fielding was very good too, with Joe Denly, Mala and Dex catching the eye. It was unfortunate that Gurjit Sandhu couldn’t restrict them in the final over, but he’d bowled well and his experience from this game will hold him in good stead for the future.

Sometimes, credit has to be given to the batsman in these circumstances and Tim Phillips, with 31 runs from just 13 balls including four sixes, was just too hot for us to handle.

Finally, I was disappointed to read the cricinfo report decribe our bowling attack as ‘threadbare’. ‘Young’ and ‘inexperienced’ would have been more accurate words and I’m sure this attack will make us all proud in seasons to come.