Tomorrow we head to Beckenham for our latest Metro Bank One Day Cup encounter where we'll face a Kent Spitfires side currently sitting in fifth place in the Group A table.
Yesterday, against Essex, Middlesex dominated for large parts of the game, only to leave Chelmsford disappointed and empty handed after the home side somehow wrestled their way back into the match to take the points.
With Essex winning the toss and asking us to bowl, our bowlers put Essex on the back foot early in the innings, restricting the hosts to 121 for 5 after 20 overs, before a partnership of 99 between Tom Westley and Charlie Allison dragged them right back into the contest.
That recovery saw Essex post 298 for 9 in their 50 overs to give themselves a fighting chance that they probably shouldn't have had, as we were disappointed to have let the hosts get close to 300.
Chasing, a brilliant 93 off 97 balls from opener and stand-in skipper Mark Stoneman led Middlesex's charge, and with the top six all making solid starts, it looked for all the money that Middlesex would get home at a canter, especially when the score had reached 236 for 3 with 15 overs of the innings remaining.
The loss of our last seven wickets for just 59 runs left us agonisingly short however, dismissed for 295, as Essex ran out winners by 3 runs. It was game that we will look back on as one that really got away!
We'll have to shake off the disappointment of that defeat and the manner in which it happened, as we look to pick ourselves up and get our campaign up and running against Kent tomorrow.
Kent picked up their second win of this year's campaign yesterday, with a comprehensive 87 run win against Surrey at the Oval that took them to fifth in the table on 4 points, just one point behind Nottinghamshire who currently sit in third place and holding the third and final knockout place, with Leicestershire and Hampshire sat in the top two spots. There's plenty of cricket yet to be played however, and all nine sides can still qualify from a tight group, with numerous games having fallen fowl to the shocking weather this month.
Kent have been the beneficiaries of a new rule this year, which states that any player not having played in two consecutive Hundred games can return to their county to play in the Metro Bank One Day Cup, and Daniel Bell-Drummond has done just that, hitting a top scoring knock for Kent against Lancashire in their penultimate game, and a fine knock of 65 in yesterday's win against Surrey. With London Spirit playing today, against the Trent Rockets, if Bell-Drummond plays he will be ineligible to play for Kent tomorrow, however, if he doesn't feature for Spirit at Lord's then he will be available for the clash in Beckenham.
With Middlesex and Kent not playing each other in the fifty over format last year, the last time the two sides met in this competition was back in 2021, when Kent ran out winners by 21 runs at Radlett in a match reduced to 35 overs, bowling us out for just 196 in reply their total of 217. On that day Josh De Caires top scored for Middlesex, hitting a List-A career high knock of 43 and Ethan Bamber shone with the ball, picking up career best List-A figures of 3 for 41.
Tomorrow we have a chance to put yesterday's result firmly to the back of our minds and get our campaign up and running, and we have named an unchanged squad of fourteen for the clash in Beckenham, as follows:
Kent Spitfires
Middlesex
