MIDDLESEX NAME SQUAD OF FIFTEEN FOR RETURN TO THE VITALITY BLAST AGAINST HAMPSHIRE
Middlesex Head Coach Stuart Law has named a squad of fifteen for Saturday’s return to Vitality Blast action, with Steven Finn leading out a side looking to bounce back to winning ways after a disappointing outing last time out against London rivals Surrey.
In a campaign that has seen Middlesex prove to be competitive in every game, losing just once to Sussex when a brilliant knock from David Weise proved to be the difference, the Sky televised encounter at the Oval saw Middlesex fall someway short for the first time this campaign, with skipper Finn acknowledging that his young side had been outplayed by their vastly more experienced neighbours.
Middlesex will need to shake off that disappointment and pick up where they left off against Essex in their previous game, where a dominant display at Lord’s saw Finn’s side run out winners by 11 runs.
Middlesex will be looking for runs from leading run scorers, Stephen Eskinazi and Max Holden, who with 240 runs at an average of 48.00 and 190 runs at an average of 47.50 are both sat inside the top five run-scorers list for the competition as a whole.
With the ball, it is Steven Finn himself that is leading the way, with nine wickets at an average of just 12.00, and Finn sits second in the list of leading wicket takers in the competition to this point.
Finn will be looking for others to step up and offer support against a Hampshire side, who to date, like Middlesex, have won just one of their Blast encounters and sit one place and one point below them in the South Group table. With Tim Murtagh added to the squad for this encounter, Finn has some experience to call upon if required.
For the visitors, both runs and wickets have been hard to come by this term, with Joe Weatherley’s 137 runs at 27.40 being the leading contribution with the bat, whilst with five wickets, Mason Crane is Hampshire’s leading bowler.
A win for Middlesex on Saturday in round six of the Blast will push them to six points and level with Surrey, and realistically would leave Finn’s side needing to win three of their four remaining games to give themselves a chance of qualification for the knockout stages of the competition. A tally of twelve points should put Middlesex in the shake-up, although to achieve this, they’ll need to ideally start with a win tomorrow and build momentum from there over the last four games, three of which are away from Lord's!
The game starts at 2pm, with our pre-game build-up starting at 1.30pm on our enhanced live stream, available to watch for free on the Middlesex website. Make sure you tune in to catch all of the action!
Stuart Law has named the following fifteen-man squad for the Hampshire clash:
Steven Finn (c)
Martin Andersson
Joe Cracknell
Blake Cullen
Miguel Cummins
Jack Davies
Stephen Eskinazi
James Harris
Tom Helm
Max Holden
Luke Hollman
Dan Lincoln
Tim Murtagh
John Simpson (wicket-keeper)
Nathan Sowter
Middlesex
Hampshire
