After securing back to back victories in the Royal London Cup yesterday, beating Surrey by 102 runs at Radlett, Middlesex are next in fifty-over action tomorrow, at Grantham Cricket Club, where they'll take on table-topping Nottinghamshire Outlaws in the fourth game of their campaign.
Middlesex's win took them level with five other sides at the top of the table, with tomorrow's visitors in pole position by virtue of a better run rate, with Sussex, Middlesex, Gloucestershire and Leicestershire all grouped together with the Outlaws on four points.
Middlesex's First-Team Coach, Richard Johnson, has named an unchanged squad of fourteen for the trip, with Middlesex targeting another victory to take them ahead of the leading pack.
A thumping nine wicket win for Middlesex up at Chester-le-Street against Durham last Sunday was followed up with an equally impressive display yesterday against London Rivals Surrey at Radlett, where Stephen Eskinazi led the side from the front in a record breaking day at Cobden Hill.
A depleted Surrey side came to Radlett, missing more than a dozen regulars from their squad, and experience and quality told, as Middlesex were in control of the game throughout.
Having lost the toss and been put into bat, Middlesex's skipper, Eskinazi, continued the blistering form he's been in of late to break the Club's List-A record for a highest individual innings, smashing 182 off 136 balls, to go past Max Holden's record, set in 2019 when he hit 166 against Kent in Canterbury. Eskinazi's knock yesterday came off the back of an equally impressive unbeaten knock of 146 against Durham, and 56 before that against Leicestershire Foxes.
Eskinazi's innings was undoubtedly the highlight of what was an impressive all-round complete performance for his side, who dominated the inexperienced visitors' side from the opening overs of the encounter.
Eskinazi and fellow opener Mark Stoneman put on 61 in the opening ten powerplay overs before the partnership was broken as Stoneman fell for 23. Sam Robson came and went for 18, which brought Pieter Malan to the crease.
The South African, who has settled in well at the Club and looks to be in great touch, added 142 for the third wicket with Eskinazi before falling for a well-worked 64 at a little over a run a ball.
Eskinazi just kept going however, and as partners came and went, Middlesex's skipper passed milestone after milestone, beating Holden's record in the 49th over before falling in the final over of the innings for a stunning 182.
By this point the damage had been done and Middlesex had posted a total of 351 for 7 in their fifty overs, to record the fifth highest List-A score in the Club's history.
Eskinazi's endeavours in the opening three matches of this year's tournament see him sat as the leading run-scorer in the competition, with a staggering 384 runs at and average of 192.
In reply, only Ryan Patel showed the resistance required, and even a fine century from the visitors' left-handed opener wasn't enough to get his Surrey side close.
Umesh Yadav accounted for the wicket of Surrey skipper Ben Geddes early on for 7, before a vicious short of a length rising delivery from the Indian quick struck Cameron Steel on the helmet, forcing the former Middlesex man to retire hurt. Thankfully he was up and on his feet soon after the blow, however after attempting to continue, he was forced to leave the field not to return.
Ethan Bamber followed this up soon after with the wicket of Josh Blake for a duck, before a partnership of 79 between Patel and Tom Lawes gave the visitors some hope.
Lawes departure however, who fell to Toby Greatwood for 27, applied the brakes again, before Bamber struck twice in rapid succession to dismiss Reifer and Kimber, with the young Middlesex seamer finishing with fine figures of 3 for 46 from his ten overs.
Martin Andersson then got in on the action and picked up a brace of wickets and Surrey ran out of steam, leaving Yadav to mop up the tail, picking up the final two wickets of the innings with two trademark yorkers!
Much like Eskinazi is leading things with the bat, Yadav is showing his international class with the ball, and after three games sits as the competition's joint leading wicket taker with nine wickets at just 16.11.
It was a really impressive display from Middlesex yesterday, who will now head to Grantham full of confidence, knowing that anything like the kind of performance they have delivered against both Durham and Surrey will put them in with a great chance of picking up more victories on their travels and returning to Radlett next week in a great position in the table.
Much like Surrey yesterday, tomorrow's opponents Nottinghamshire have been ravaged by Hundred call-ups, and their side is missing several names you would normally expect to see out on the park for the Outlaws.
On the Hundred absentees list are Joe Clarke, Ben Duckett and Jake Ball, all with Welsh Fire, Calvin Harrison with Manchester Originals, and Matt Carter, Luke Fletcher, Alex Hales, Tom Moores, Steven Mullaney and Samit Patel all with Trent Rockets.
Despite the absentees, the Outlaws have made an impressive start to their Royal London Cup campaign under stand in Captain, Haseeb Hameed, who is deputising for the missing Mullaney.
A win in their opening encounter, by 65 runs against Sussex, saw them post 290 in their fifty overs and dismiss Sussex for just 225 in 44 overs, before they then demolished Somerset by ten wickets in Taunton, rolling their hosts for just 119 inside 36 overs. They came unstuck against a James Bracey inspired Gloucestershire in their last encounter down in Bristol, although still hit 294 runs in defeat.
Sol Budinger and Matt Montgomery lead the way with the bat for tomorrow's hosts, with 161 runs at 80.5 and 100 runs at 50.00 respectively, whilst with the ball they still carry plenty of threat, with Brett Hutton and Dane Paterson their leading wicket-takers with six wickets apiece and Zak Chappell and Liam Patterson-White also in amongst the wickets.
Tomorrow, Middlesex will need to be on their guard against a depleted, yet still strong Nottinghamshire side, as they look to repeat their recent performances on their travels and pick up more points.
It was all the way back in the 2015 season when the two sides last met in a List-A encounter, in a Royal London One-Day Cup Group B clash, when at Lord's, a century from the visitors' opener Riki Wessels saw his side post 295 for 9 in their fifty overs. Middlesex could only muster 246 in reply, despite a knock of 88 from opener Sam Robson, as Nottinghamshire ran out winners by 49 runs.
That year, Nottinghamshire went on to finish Group B as winners, defeating Durham in the quarter-finals, before then losing out to Surrey in the semis, who lost to Gloucestershire in the final at Lord's later that summer.
For tomorrow's clash in Grantham, Middlesex name an unchanged fourteen-man squad, as follows:
Notts Outlaws
Middlesex
