By Leprechaun
April 28 2015

The Leprechaun decribes a cold day with a major injury concern, a worrying match position, with some positives and many James bonding.   

Cricket is meant to be a summer sport so it felt a bit odd to be putting on layers and layers to beat a temperature of around 3 as I left the hotel. And then it started raining on the way to the ground, but I found the way to make that stop was to struggle to open my umbrella in the wind. As soon as I did that it stopped. Not that it got any warmer! But Taunton is a very pleasant place to stroll round and the cricket ground is one of the friendliest on the circuit. So even on a cold and dodgy weather day it was not a hardship to head for the Marcus Trescothick stand where there was a decent sprinkling of Middlesex supporters. On the way I passed a serious net session with Stephen Finn. An unusual twist was Richard Johnston holding a plastic thinngy which he threw down just before Finny released the ball. Presumably the idea was for him to try and hit the thingy which he was doing regularly. It also looked as if Middlesex were expecting to be bowling soon, which was less encouraging

We started playing in cold but bright weather and with some hope of getting to a fourth batting point. But an eventful first hour put paid to that idea. The morning started with a trio of James as Overton bowled a hostile first over to Franklin and Harris. This was swiftly followed by a brief hail shower during which our Jamess bonded near the tractor and the Somerset Jamess - lots of them hovered near the covers. After which Franklin was quickly dispatched by Gregory. Puzzlement followed as Steve Finn came in, hit a fourteen and was lbw in tbe same over. No Murtagh to join Harris. Rather worrying as we ended with no progress tbis morning. News came through that Murts had done something to his back and was being monitored, so for the second match in a row we were down to 10 players. If we continue to lose a player a match we could have an interesting team by August.

So without him we needed our other bowlers to take quick wickets to stay seriously in the game. And despite some decent opening overs there were just too many four balls to keep Somerset in check and the afternoon turned into a form of damage limitation as the ball hit the boundary often enough to keep the Somerset overrate at around four an over. Actually hitting the boundary included hitting the ball regularly into the building site of the new pavilion and repeated requests for please can we have our ball back. Good thing that for once we did not have to worry about our run rate, but apart from a few balls that scuttled, and some occassional turn there was not a lot in the wicket and Somerset had a serene afternoon as our fields got  more defensive. A regular fall of wickets was not enough to stop the target getting almost certainly beyond us, although a slightly manic last hour has set up a possibly interesting last day

Somerset had come out after tea with a visible intent to up the run rate which suited Trego of course. But when he was out, bowled by a visibly relieved Finn, Somerset got pegged back a little, with a subtext of whether Hildreth could get another 100, and possibly 300 in the match before a likely evening declaration to give us a few overs tonight. Groenewald was run out in an attempt to give him the strike, and then Hildreth himself holed out trying to get his century quickly. The next James (Overton) hit Finn for a huge 6 and was then bowled. Which left us a tricky seven overs. Nick Gubbins looked generally solid, Sam Robson played one delightful on drive, one awful shot that started as a cut, but went low past Barrow for four; he looked nervous but at least survived. And Somerset had their own injury scare when Overton did something to his left leg in a dodgy foothold and limped off after bowling just seven balls. Thanks to some wayward bowling we ended up with a decent run rate. and the wicket is not wicked. If we are still batting late tomorrow it might be interesting, but we might not have Murts to stage another rearguard. It might be down to our last James or theirs.

And some positives to end. More decent bowling by James Harris, listening to some very good banter by Somerset supporters, good news from Radlett about Andy Balbirnie's innings, and the Somerset PA acknowledging Steven Finn's inclusion in the England team as well as Lewis Gregory. And just the one negative; the concern about Tim Murtagh.