Middlesex First Team Coach Richard Johnson has named a thirteen-man squad for tomorrow night's Vitality Blast clash at Lord's, when Essex Eagles come to the Home of Cricket. Middlesex make one change to the squad who travelled to Cardiff for last night's Blast encounter.
After running out winners by seven wickets on Sunday against the Kent Spitfires to get their campaign back on track and put themselves in position to challenge for a top four place, things fell apart last night in Cardiff, as the hosts romped to convincing victory by eight wickets.
Having been put in to bat, Middlesex did well to post a total of 171 for 7 in their 20 overs, with Max Holden top scoring with 58. It was the manner and ease with which Glamorgan chased down their victory target in a little over 14 overs that was the most disappointing, as their openers Sam Northeast and David Lloyd put the Middlesex attack to all parts of Sophia Gardens, the former hitting 89 off 46 balls and the latter 67 off 36, as they added 150 runs for the opening stand - in just 11.5 overs!
The defeat all but put an end to any hopes the side had of qualifying for the knockout stages of the competition, as four wins and seven defeats in eleven outings have left Middlesex in seventh place, three points behind fourth placed Essex, who also have a game in hand on the Seaxes. Middlesex's plight is not helped any by the net run rate they are on, which at minus 1.149 is currently the worst in the competition.
Mathematically at least, Middlesex can still qualify, however it would need three wins from their three remaining games, take numerous other results to go their way, and would need an enormous swing in net run rates to give them any chance at all.
Tomorrow's opponents Essex Eagles got the better of the return fixture, running out winners by 61 runs at Chelmsford, and whilst victory for them tomorrow would end Middlesex's hopes of progressing, it would be a huge boost to the visitors hopes of making the knockout stages and would take them to 13 points and into third place.
Middlesex will be hoping for a repeat of Sunday's performance against Kent, when their plans worked to perfection, and against a strong Essex side they'll need plenty more of the same tomorrow and in their two remaining games to finish their South Group campaign with some pride restored.
Middlesex have made just one change to their squad for tomorrow's game, with young seamer Max Harris coming in to the squad to replace Tom Helm, who drops out.
Middlesex's thirteen man squad is as follows:
Middlesex
Essex
