NatWest T20 Blast: Surrey (106-2) beat Middlesex (105-9)
Surrey moved into a challenging position in the NatWest t20 Blast South Group by making it three wins in a row at the expense of their London rivals Middlesex, who collapsed to their seventh successive defeat in the competition in pitiful fashion..
Middlesex could manage only 105 for nine in their 20 overs with just three batsmen getting into double figures and it was all too easy for Surrey after that as Kumar Sangakkara and Gary Wilson saw them home with 32 balls to spare with an unbroken third wicket partnership of 69 in nine overs.
There was plenty of Middlesex support in a packed crowd of 24,000 at the Kia Oval but the players looked devoid of confidence with not even Eoin Morgan, England’s one-day international captain, able to inspire them.
Only Dawid Malan posed any sort of problem to Surrey with 40 off 35 balls, including the only six of the innings, slog-swept off Gareth Batty, and three fours before he drove Zafar Ansari straight into the hands of long on.
There were only three more fours, one of them struck by Paul Stirling, who soon skyed Sam Curran, the 17-year-old left arm seamer, to mid on, the other two by Nick Gubbins, who had helped Malan put on 40 for the second wicket when he was caught at midwicket off Batty for 14.
Morgan struggled to eight off 11 balls before he was bowled swinging at Ansari. Batty nipped in again to bowl John Simpson before Ansari dismissed Malan and Neil Dexter, bowled, with successive balls to finish with three for 17.
There were two wickets for James Burke, who had Andy Balbirnie caught at midwicket and bowled Olly Rayner and only a gallant ninth wicket stand of 20 between Harry Podmore and Ravi Patel got Middlesex into three figures.
Wnen they went in, Surrey almost treated Middlesex with disdain. Jason Roy and Tom Curran put on 37 in five overs for the first wicket and were clearly annoyed with themselves when they got out in successive overs.
Curran was bowled for 16 by Harry Podmore and Roy, who had made 21 off 18 balls, went the same way attempting a ramp shot against Gurjit Sandhu.
Not that it mattered. Sangakkara was in complete control as he stroked his way to 40 off 28 balls with four fours and a six and Wilson gave him all the support he needed with 25.
