Middlesex head to the SSE SWALEC Stadium in Cardiff on Tuesday to take on South Group table toppers Glamorgan in the Royal London One-Day Cup, needing to pick themselves up after losing the third clash of this year's 50-over campaign on Sunday to a Sussex side who amazingly hadn't previously won in this format for two years. With only two points on the board from three games played, Middlesex will be urgently looking to turn things around in Wales, to get back to winnings ways, and get their 50-over campaign back on track.
At a wet and dreary 1st Central County Ground at the weekend, prolonged rain showers all morning saw Sunday's match against Sussex reduced to a contest of 32 overs per side, and having won the toss, Middlesex skipper James Franklin, would have been disappointed to see the home side pile on 222 for 7 after he'd inserted them. Whilst Toby Roland-Jones again bowled with accuracy and pace to pick up fine figures of 3 for 47, Middlesex's cause was not helped by the injury to Tom Helm, who has impressed in recent games, with the young seamer having to leave the field with an ankle injury, sustained whilst fielding, after bowling just three of his allotted overs.
Chasing an above par target, the early loss of both Dawid Malan and Paul Stirling saw Middlesex immediately drop onto the back foot as the required run rate started to climb. With Brendon McCullum and Eoin Morgan at the crease, both needing to consolidate and solidify the innings, rather than build momentum aggressively, the task at hand grew in difficulty. After they were both dismissed in quick succession to leave Middlesex on 87 for 4 in the 16th over, both having got good starts, the run chase became an extremely tall order. Despite some late resilience from Nick Gubbins (37), James Franklin (28) and James Fuller (19), it proved too much for Middlesex as they went down by 31 runs.
Early pace setters Glamorgan look to be the form team in the South Group, and are the only side in both groups to still boast a one hundred percent record in the competition, having won all three of their encounters so far against Sussex, Gloucestershire and Kent. Middlesex will need to be at their very best to upset Glamorgan's charge, although skipper James Franklin again has the services of McCullum and Morgan to call upon, within a strong squad, that are more than capable of delivering the goods down in Cardiff.
Middlesex are pleased to announce the following 14-man squad for our Royal London One-Day Cup match against Glamorgan tomorrow, Tuesday 14 June:
James Franklin (c), James Fuller, Nick Gubbins, James Harris, Ryan Higgins, Dawid Malan, Brendon McCullum, Eoin Morgan, Tim Murtagh, Ollie Rayner, Toby Roland-Jones, John Simpson, Nathan Sowter, Paul Stirling.
The match is due to start at 2pm.
Injury Update:
Ravi Patel - Ravi strained his thigh during warm ups at Bristol and it hasn't settled as well as we had hoped. So he is seeing the Club doctor today for a review.
Tom Helm - Tom twisted his ankle yesterday at Hove and an x-ray taken on the day showed that there were no broken bones. He is having an MRI scan today to assess any other damage.
