Having despatched London rivals Surrey last night at a packed Lord’s Cricket Ground, Middlesex head to Chelmsford this evening for their second Vitality Blast clash of the season, where they’ll take on an Essex side who lost their opening encounter to Sussex in Chelmsford earlier this week.
Last night Middlesex got off to a flying start against Surrey, winning by three wickets, in a game that they should in truth have won more convincingly.
The Middlesex pair of Tom Helm and debutant Dwayne bravo bowled brilliantly at the death to restrict visitors Surrey to 158, when they looked for large parts of their innings to be posting upwards of 180.
Middlesex’s reply got off to a tremendous start with Man of the Match Paul Stirling in blistering form, smashing 66 from just 36 balls, to get Middlesex right ahead of the rate.
A mid-innings collapse saw Middlesex lose 4 wickets for just one run, before Hilton Cartwright showed his class to steady the ship and take Middlesex to within touching distance of victory.
Middlesex will take plenty of heart from last night’s victory, in what has been a tough week for the club, and can head to Chelmsford high in confidence, knowing that they’d beaten Surrey when not performing at their best, and with plenty of room for improvement.
An improvement against Essex tonight and victory in Chelmsford would see Middlesex head to Uxbridge on Sunday unbeaten, on top of the table, and enjoying their best start to a T20 campaign since they won the tournament in 2008.
For tonight’s clash with Essex, Middlesex make one enforced change to the squad they named for last night’s derby with Surrey, with Dawid Malan leaving the squad to join up with England for this evening's Second T20I against India in Cardiff!
Middlesex twelve-man Vitality Blast squad for clash vs Essex
Dwayne Bravo
Hilton Cartwright
Stephen Eskinazi
James Fuller
Nick Gubbins
James Harris
Tom Helm
Ravi Patel
George Scott
John Simpson (wicket-keeper)
Nathan Sowter
Paul Stirling
Essex
Middlesex
