Middlesex head straight back into another Vitality Blast clash tomorrow evening after losing their one hundred percent winning start to the competition against Gloucestershire at Cheltenham College earlier today.
Middlesex battled hard against the West Countrymen today, although a combination of an under-par batting total and key lapses in the field cost them dearly as the hosts snuck home by two wickets in the final over of the game.
Stuart Law’s side went into today’s encounter without the influential AB de Villiers, who whilst named in the squad didn’t make Middlesex’s starting eleven - deemed unfit to play after failing to recover from injuring his fingers in the field against Surrey on Tuesday evening. It is hoped he will recover ahead of tomorrow’s Glamorgan clash to make a return to action.
Dan Lincoln, on debut, repaid the faith shown in him by Head Coach Law, making an impressive 30 off 24 deliveries, whilst Stephen Eskinazi again performed well at the top of the order with a solid knock of 40. John Simpson also continued some good early campaign form with the bat, hitting a well worked and well paced 42 off only 29 balls, although the lack of any other meaningful contributions with the bat cost Middlesex dearly.
Tomorrow in Cardiff they’ll be looking to bounce straight back to winning ways against Glamorgan to finish a run of three consecutive away games with six points from their opening four games.
Glamorgan are yet to notch up a win from their opening three encounters of this year’s campaign, having lost their opener to Somerset, then drawing a rained off affair with Gloucestershire, and then losing to Surrey last night - bowled out for just 44 inside 13 overs. They sit on just one point, bottom of the table, whilst Middlesex, on four points, trail only Kent in top spot on net run rate.
Middlesex name an unchanged fifteen-man squad for tomorrow evening’s clash down in Cardiff to face Glamorgan...
Dawid Malan (Captain)
Tom Barber
AB de Villiers
Stephen Eskinazi
Steven Finn
Nick Gubbins
James Harris
Tom Helm
Max Holden
Dan Lincoln
Toby Roland-Jones
George Scott
John Simpson (wicket-keeper)
Nathan Sowter
Mujeeb ur Rahman
Glamorgan
Middlesex
