NatWest T20 Blast Match preview - Middlesex v Surrey
Whilst Middlesex’s own hopes of qualification to the knockout stages of this year’s NatWest T20 Blast are now long behind them, London rivals Surrey head across the Thames to Lord’s on Thursday evening with their own chances of securing a place in the quarter finals very much still intact.
When the two sides met at the Kia Oval three weeks ago, Middlesex disappointingly fell to their seventh successive defeat in the competition, whilst in stark contrast, Surrey secured their third consecutive victory to push themselves into a position to challenge for a top four finish in the South Group.
In what was arguably Middlesex’s most disappointing performance to date, in what has been a poor campaign throughout, the Seaxes were only able to post a target of 105 for 9 in their twenty overs, which Surrey chased down with comparative ease inside fifteen overs for the loss of just two wickets.
Surrey come to Lord’s in decent form in the short format of the game, with four wins in their last five T20 Blast outings, and just one solitary defeat, at the hands of Hampshire two matches ago. The home faithful within a capacity crowd at a floodlit Lord’s on Thursday night will be hoping that Middlesex can repeat Hampshire’s efforts and put another significant dent in Surrey’s hopes of progressing to the knockout stages.
Somewhat surprisingly whilst Middlesex remain rooted to the bottom of the South Group table, they have actually hit more runs in the competition that their rivals from south of the river, hitting 1,937 runs in the tournament thus far, compared to Surrey’s total of 1,708.
With Surrey having the lowest run tally of any side in the South Group, they will once again be hugely reliant on their opening pairing of Kumar Sangakkara and Jason Roy to post a winning total at Lord’s, as no other batsman in the Surrey team has yet to surpass 200 runs in the competition this term. Dismissing the opening pair cheaply will therefore be key to Middlesex’s hopes of inflicting defeat on Surrey and reducing their quarter final aspirations.
Aside of hoping to avoid another defeat at the hands of their closest rivals, Middlesex’s own hopes will firmly be focussed on finishing the competition with a flourish, to restore some pride and confidence ahead of the fifty over Royal London One-Day Cup competition, which kicks off for Middlesex at Lord’s this Sunday against visiting Warwickshire.
Squad Details:
Middlesex have named the following 13 man squad to play against Surrey:
Eoin Morgan (*), Neil Dexter, Steven Finn, James Franklin, Nick Gubbins, Dawid Malan, Mitchell McClenaghan, Ravi Patel, Harry Podmore, Ollie Rayner, Gurjit Sandhu, George Scott & John Simpson (+)
Ticket Information:
THIS MATCH IS A COMPLETE SELL OUT!
NO TICKETS WILL BE AVAILABLE TO PURCHASE ON THE GATE!
Middlesex Members & Guests:
Middlesex Members (except County Members) can get into this match for free on production of your membership card. Rover tickets, however, are now SOLD OUT.
Rover tickets are tickets that members must buy for their guests in order for them to be able to sit with them in the Members' & Friends Enclosures at NatWest T20 Blast matches. If you have not already bought Rover tickets for your guests then you will now unfortunately not be able to for this match, and they will therefore not be able to sit with you. Middlesex Members are also reminded that, for NatWest T20 Blast matches, you must sit in the Members and Friends Enclosures, including Allen, Tavern and Warner Stands, and the Pavilion as the rest of the ground is allocated seating.
Please note that this also means that Members who have purchased an incorrect ticket for their guests (i.e a public stand ticket, rather than a Rover), WILL NOT be able to swap over on the night as they may have been able to do in the past.
Gates open at 4.45pm on Thursday and play is due to start at 6.15pm.
With a capacity crowd expected, we recommend arriving at the ground as early as possible.
