Middlesex's First Team Coach, Richard Johnson has named a thirteen-man squad to face London rivals Surrey tomorrow night, as we return to the Home of Cricket for the first of four home encounters back at Lord's in the Vitality Blast.
After three home South Group Blast matches all played at Radlett Cricket Club to start this season's campaign, due to the unavailability of Lord's, Middlesex return to St John's Wood having won two of those home Radlett encounters, before failing to make it three from three yesterday as a resurgent Hampshire romped to a nine wicket victory.
A decent crowd made it up to Radlett yesterday for the double header, and after Sunrisers had beaten Southern Vipers in the morning encounter, we went into the afternoon game with spirits high. What transpired however was a performance to forget, as Hampshire's openers James Vince and Ben McDermott flayed the ball to all parts of The Brunton Memorial Ground, breaking their own T20 opening partnership that they'd set just the night before, with their 132 run opening stand surpassing the 124 run opening stand they'd posted against Sussex on Monday evening.
Middlesex Captain Stephen Eskinazi spoke frankly of his disappointment at his side's performance at the close of play yesterday, and acknowledged that we'd fallen short of the standards the side sets itself, which was evident on a day where Hampshire outperformed Middlesex with both bat and ball.
Eskinazi’s side will need to draw a line under yesterday’s performance, dust themselves off, and put it behind them, as the defeat took Middlesex, early group leaders after three consecutive victories, down the table to sixth, following their third successive loss.
Such is the nature of T20 cricket however, and fortunes can shift quickly, and Middlesex are boosted by the return of both Eoin Morgan and Tom Helm tomorrow, with the pair having spent time recently on the side-lines recovering from injuries. There's no better incentive for the side to turn their form around however than the prospect of a head to head with their London rivals Surrey, who come to Lord's as the only unbeaten side remaining in the South Group.
The visitors' record of four wins and one no result see them sitting on nine points, with Middlesex just three points adrift, and given that we're not even at the halfway stage of the competition yet, Middlesex have time on their side to rebuild their campaign and push for knockout qualification.
Middlesex will be looking for Eskinazi to rediscover the kind of form we saw from him when smashing 87 to take Middlesex to victory against Gloucestershire in the opener, as knocks of 34, 31 and 21 in his last three innings have seen him get starts but fail to go on and convert them into match winning knocks. Others too have shown glimpses of brilliance, with Max Holden, Joe Cracknell, Morgan and Jack Davies all contributing so far with the bat, and they'll all need to be looking to weigh in with runs tomorrow to give Surrey a test at Lord's tomorrow.
With the ball Martin Andersson leads the way with ten wickets in the competition, closely followed by Toby Roland-Jones with 9, with other sharing the spoils around, most notably the spinners Chris Green and Luke Hollman, who have six wickets apiece. Jason Behrendorff remains Middlesex's most economical bowler since joining the side three matches ago.
Surrey's line up resembles a who's who of current and former international cricketers, with England's Jason Roy, Sam Curran, Reece Topley, Ollie Pope and Chris Jordan all having featured in their Blast campaign to date, along with Australia's Dan Worrall and West Indies Kieron Pollard and Sunil Narine - so it's little surprise that they sit atop of the South Group table and the side to beat.
Middlesex will need to be at their very best to go head to head with Surrey tomorrow, and with London bragging rights up for grabs, Eskinazi said his side were looking forward to the contest in front of what will be their biggest crowd of the campaign to date.
With tomorrow's encounter being broadcast live on Sky, Middlesex are unable to produce a live stream of the match due to broadcast restrictions, so we hope to see as many members and supporters in person at Lord's as possible.
Tickets are still available to purchase for the clash, and can be bought online HERE
We look forward to seeing you at Lord’s tomorrow, cheering the side on, as we look to get one over our London rivals and get back to winning ways.
Middlesex have named the following thirteen-man squad for the London derby:
Middlesex
Surrey
