Middlesex have named a squad of fifteen to take on the Sussex Sharks tomorrow night at Lord's, unchanged from the squad that faced Hampshire Hawks at Radlett last night, in what was a much improved Middlesex performance. Tomorrow's match will be played out in front of the live Sky Cricket cameras under floodlights.
Despite the side competing well against the competition's reigning Champions yesterday evening, Middlesex fell to their seventh defeat of the campaign, although much heart can be taken from a performance that ran the South Coast side very close indeed.
Winning the toss and electing to field, Middlesex bowled with much greater control and penetration, picking up regular Hampshire wickets, which ultimately stifled the visitors and restricted them to a total of 164.
Hampshire relied on the quality and experience of their bowling unit to restrict Middlesex in the run chase, especially at the death, and despite a fine 53 off 31 balls from Max Holden, who looked back to his best with bat in hand, as did Ryan Higgins, with 43 from 35, Middlesex fell agonisingly short of their target, losing out by just 5 runs.
It was the kind of performance that Middlesex have been looking for, and any repeat of that tomorrow night, and they'll have every chance of securing their first win of the campaign, against a Sussex side who have also struggled to build any momentum this year.
Sussex come to Lord's off the back of four straight defeats, losing out to Essex twice, Glamorgan and Hampshire in their last four outings.
They sit on just two points, level with Kent, who like Sussex have just the one win to their name this term. Sussex's solitary victory came against Surrey five games ago, when the two sides met at the Kia Oval, where the Sharks ran out winners by 5 wickets.
Sussex's run scoring has been led this year by the trio of Ravi Bopara, Tom Alsop and Michael Burgess, with the experienced Bopara leading the way on 151 runs at an average of 37.75. Alsop's tally of 142 at 28.40 and Burgess' 139 at 23.16 sees them and Bopara as the only three Sussex batters to have reached three figures this term.
By comparison, Middlesex have five batters who've reached three figures in this campaign, with Max Holden (176 runs at 25.14) leading the way, followed by Pieter Malan (170 at 24.28), Stephen Eskinazi (164 at 23.42), Joe Cracknell (141 at 20.14) and Ryan Higgins (127 at 21.16).
On the wicket-taking front, Sussex have been reliant on white-ball specialist Tymal Mills, who leads the way on 11 wickets at 13.90, with Henry Crocombe the best of the rest, with 5 wickets at 25.40.
Middlesex's wickets have been spread around, with both Blake Cullen (6 at 31.00) and Tom Helm (6 at 48.33) leading the way, with Luke Hollman (5 at 34.00) hot on their heels.
On paper the sides look well matched, so tomorrow's encounter promises to be a thrilling game, when both sides will be looking to get a victory to build some momentum going into the latter half of the group stage.
With tomorrow night's clash with Sussex Sharks coming ahead of two clashes still to come against Kent Spitfires, Middlesex will be looking for a repeat performance of last night's effort against Hampshire to give themselves every opportunity to build some momentum and restore some pride into the group.
Tomorrow's fifteen man squad is as follows:
Middlesex
Sussex Sharks
