Middlesex play their final Vitality Blast South Group match of the summer tomorrow, down in Bristol, where they'll face a Gloucestershire side at the Seat Unique Stadium.
Middlesex's First Team Coach, Richard Johnson, names a thirteen-man squad for the clash, unchanged from the squad that narrowly lost out to Somerset last night at Lord's, in what was a closely fought final home encounter of Middlesex's 2022 Blast campaign.
With nothing other than pride to play for, Middlesex went toe to toe with Somerset last night, against one of the strongest T20 outfits in the country, as the visitors' record in the competition testifies to, and came oh so close to upsetting the form books with a strong performance in front of the home Lord's crowd.
Having been stuck in by Somerset skipper Tom Abell, Middlesex lost the key early wickets of Stephen Eskinazi and Max Holden in their quest to build a challenging total and found themselves stifled in the powerplay overs - only managing to post 33 for 2 when fielding restrictions were lifted.
From there however, Middlesex found the resolve to build their innings, rallying late with the bat, with knocks of 41 from Luke Hollman and an unbeaten 44 from Chris Green, which took their side's total to a respectable 160, which looked to be about par on the night.
In reply, Somerset's innings began in similar fashion, as the dangerous Will Smeed and Rilee Roussow both fell in the powerplay overs, with young debutant seamer Max Harris claiming the latter of those two wickets with only his second delivery for the Club to remove the South African overseas star who has been in blistering form in this year's Blast.
Middlesex controlled the middle overs, with both Green and Walallawita bowling tightly, however Somerset maintained their push towards the target and crucially kept on top of the run rate, despite losing wickets throughout.
At the end of the seventeenth over of Somerset's reply the score comparison was neck a neck, with Somerset on 122 for 6 in reply to Middlesex's 123 for 5.
Fourteen runs off the eighteenth over got the visitors noses in front, but the wicket of Ben Green in the nineteenth over seemed to swing momentum Middlesex's way.
That brought Craig Overton to the crease - and he had other ideas! Swinging hard from ball one, he despatched his first two deliveries into the leg side stands and holed out off his third, to give Jason Behrendorff his third wicket of the evening, but by then the damage had been done with Somerset needing just ten to win off the final over!
Somerset got over the line with two balls to spare, in what was a thrilling match that will give the Middlesex players plenty of optimism ahead of tomorrow's visit to face a Gloucestershire side, who also, like them, have failed to qualify for the knockout stages of the competition.
Whilst on paper at least, tomorrow's game is nothing other than a dead-rubber, the manner in which the Middlesex side approached last night's game against Somerset says that they're hell bent on finishing their Blast campaign on a high note, to prove some of the doubters wrong and restore some pride within the group.
Gloucestershire's campaign has been blighted by inconsistency, with the West Country side winning six and losing five of their eleven completed games to date, and Middlesex will fancy their chances of repeating the victory they got over them at Radlett in the campaign's very first fixture, which whilst only five weeks ago, seems a long, long time ago now!
On that day, a brilliant 87 from Stephen Eskinazi took Middlesex to victory, and they'll be looking for their talismanic skipper to once again lead from the front and build on the 366 runs he has hit already in the competition this year. By Eskinazi's own high standards, his form has dropped in recent games, however he still remains the Club's leading run-scorer this year and has been one of the most consistent run-scorers in domestic T20 cricket over the last three seasons.
The debut of Max Harris against Somerset last night, when the youngster picked up two prize wickets, will give him every chance of earning a repeat outing in Bristol tomorrow, as Middlesex look to add to their four victories in the campaign to date to end on a high note.
Anything but a loss tomorrow would see Middlesex avoid the wooden spoon in the South Group, but with Kent going up against Glamorgan in Canterbury, a defeat for Middlesex combined with a win for the Spitfires would see Middlesex finish the campaign bottom of the Group.
In a campaign where there have been some strong team performances, some encouraging individuals performances, significant improvement in some areas, and some battling team efforts, there are certainly foundations to build on, and the side will have, without a doubt, learned a lot this year from their topsy-turvy campaign. A win tomorrow would see them finish with confidence high, with the focus then very much turning to the four-day format, and the opportunity to consolidate our position in the top two as we push for promotion to the top flight of the County Championship.
Of course there is also the small matter of the Royal London Cup to look forward to, and in the other domestic white-ball format there will be some optimism that the Middlesex side can perform admirably in the longer of the two one-day formats. With the likes of Sam Robson, Mark Stoneman, Robbie White, Ethan Bamber and Tim Murtagh to name but a few all looking in contention for regular run-outs in the fifty over format, the Middlesex side will be significantly stronger in this format, and with a minimal number of players departing to the Hundred, confidence will be high within the group for a good run in this competition, which gets under way next month!
For the final Blast clash of the summer, Middlesex have named the following thirteen-man squad for tomorrow's encounter against Gloucestershire:
Our hosts Gloucestershire will be providing a live stream of the game tomorrow, which will be available to be viewed in the match centre on the Middlesex website, or direct on Middlesex's YouTube channel. The game starts at 2.30pm.
Gloucestershire
Middlesex
