With the Afghani’s using this fixture as a warm up for their imminent World Cup qualification rounds it was always going to be a stiff test for Middlesex 2s.
Andy Balbirnie was especially keen to glean as much info on the touring side as he could, prior to a potential clash with Ireland in the next round. He was also equally as keen not to show his hand too much and ramped the ball to backward square leg off his first delivery.
Anyway, we finished our innings at what we thought was about 10 or twenty runs short, despite a 93 not out from Dawid Malan. And so it was proved.
Although we made inroads into the Afghani attack, there was a certain inevitability about the result. In fact the visitors are so set-up for T20 that they don’t own a pair of white pads between them. 6-4-6 off the last three balls did for us. But there is always the second game tomorrow.
