Middlesex's D40 Second Eleven got their 2024 campaign up and running yesterday in the D40 Pursuit South East league with a phenomenal victory in the opening fixture of their season - beating London rivals Surrey by four wickets at William Perkin School in Greenford.
Surrey batted first and were restricted by some tight bowling in the early overs, with Moazzam Rashid, Joe Batten, Fraser Church and Chloe Sainsbury all picking up wickets to restrict the visitors to 38 for 4.
A recovery from Surrey saw them rally and put runs on the board, although the Middlesex bowling unit continued to dominate, picking up regular wickets throughout the innings, with the visitors dismissed inside 32 overs for 114.
The pick of the bowlers was Moazzam Rashid, who finished with figures of 3 for 19 off 7 overs, and he was well supported by Chloe Sainsbury, who finished with figures of 2 for 17 off 5.
In reply, whilst chasing a low target, Middlesex's start got off to the worst possible start, as a flurry of early wickets saw us restricted to 48 for 6 and staring defeat in the face!
Batting at number seven, Fraser Church, had other ideas, and in a quite remarkable innings, in a game where all other batters struggled to dominate the bowlers, Church teed off, smashing two maximums and six fours on his way to an incredible match-winning knock of 55 off 21 deliveries to take Middlesex to their victory target with almost ten overs to spare.
Middlesex's four wicket win saw them take 30 points from the game and Surrey just 4, with Church the undoubted player of the match.
Congratulations to the squad on a brilliant opening win! Well done to all involved.
IMAGE BELOW: FRASER CHURCH AFTER HITTING AN UNBEATEN HALF CENTURY AGAINST SURREY
