Nick halfway to 200

By Way Out West
June 29 2016

Way out West reports on an excellent day for two of our young batsmen, aided by Kev. Although between them neither actually see Steve Eskinazi's maiden 100. A lesson in paying attention. But as the match drifts to a draw the state of pitches becomes a talking point as well.  Thanks for the report and comments. And to Darren for pictures and a great video of the momentous 200.

A straightforward journey and blue skies heralded my belated first visit of the season to Lords. Bad weather and even worse pitch conditions had meant I hadn`t missed much this year and sadly, this match was a case of more of the same.

Kev arrived just before the start of play via Tesco and we quickly put to bed the footballing “performance” of England the night before and took our places in the Grandstand.

Within seconds it became clear that once again, my infrequent visit had coincided with schools day. 5000 school children took their places in the Mound stand and their cheers and chatter would soundtrack the morning, often putting the noise generated by England football fans the night before much to shame.

Wagner and Jarvis seemed intent on an aggressive approach to try to get something out of the featherbed of a pitch from the word go, Middlesex resuming on 146/1 in reply to the large total of 513.  Short balls and a tad harsh throw from Wagner at Gubbins when he was clearly in his ground, were the order of the day and this allowed the run rate to move on along very nicely. There were a few alarms as Eskinazi in particular found the edge of his bat on more than one occasion. The stand in keeping of Croft, whilst generally diligent, definitely did offer the batsman a life or two.

Gubbins was the recipient of two life’s in the 90s to the leg spin of Parkinson as in two successive balls he edged but was put down behind the stumps after a big six had taken him onto 95*. A few more nervy moments followed before he bought up his second career century to a deserved ovation. His current average of 34 will surely end up north of 40 and he is class act who Middlesex can build the team around over the next decade.

With the game drifting along towards a race for bonus points at this stage plans were made for a liquid lunch and Kev was invited to join us. He stated he would but only if Eskinazi made his century by lunch. Sadly for Kev and Eski a prolonged period of dead batting followed and he was marooned on 91* for what felt like an eternity.

Lunch was taken in The Ordnance Arms and very nice too, this is a WoW Lords drinking Favourite. 40 minutes lunch break is never enough in these circumstances and upon returning to the ground Kev had abandoned Grandstand ship to the Upper Compton and Eskinazi had made his maiden ton and was now out. I will let him fill in on this missing half an hour.

The missing half hour from Kev

 I was watching Eski intently as he was playing carefully in nervous 90s. I sacrificed liquid lunch as would have regretted missing his maiden first class ton. On 95 I turned my back for a second. I missed the six that was hit evidently a sweep over square leg. Was temporarily gutted I missed it but quickly turned to joy for this achievement.  

Once this achieved scoring rate increased as looking to gain max BPs

Back to Way out west

Malan made a brisk 24 with a few trademark drives and only a commentators curse could stop him as I remarked how in touch he looked. Simmo was next in and looked surprisingly uncomfortable before departing for just 1, the score 309/4 with just under 19 overs to reach 400 and 5 bonus points.

Lancashire were also in the hunt for two bonus points at this stage and had generally kept to their work very well on a lifeless pitch. Wagner and Clark looked very sharp and kept the batsmen keen at all times. Young Parkinson retuned to the fray at this point, he has a very low action, almost reminiscent of Paul Adams but without the head ducking at delivery point. He bowled with a lot of variety and would appear to have some future but as with most leg spinners, there is always a chance to score and Gubbo and Franklin started to milk him easily at this stage.

A six from Gubbins helping us achieve max bonus points

Franklin always appears to have two settings to me, block and all-out attack. He combined the two well as he ably supported Gubbins in a fruitful partnership. The 400 came up in the 105^th over, five batting bonus points, 2 more than Lancashire had managed and you never know how important that could be come late September. Franklin fell shortly after for a brisk 41 and we speculated that Tea time might bring a declaration to stop Lancashire getting the sixth wicket and a further bonus point.

No such plotting occurred and with black clouds now circling, Middlesex resumed. Two very careful overs followed, 409/5 after 100 leaving Middlesex with 6 bonus points and Lancashire four. Gubbins 191* and Jarvis to bowl. Three dot balls were followed by 4, 2 and finally 4 to bring up a superb double ton, the second coming in just 116 balls, fantastic effort.

 [Note: thanks to Darren for this video of the momentous event: ]

The umpires immediately took the players off and with little chance of further play it was time to get back to Paddington sharpish. As expected it was a very one sided battle between bat and ball and Middlesex can feel very pleased with their efforts. I wasn`t present at the forum afterwards but I really hope the matter of the pitches being produced was the number one issue.  I don`t feel I can be alone in not wanting to watch too much four day cricket in the future if this is what the powers that be want our game to become.