After a fortnight’s break from white-ball cricket for two rounds of County Championship cricket, we return to Vitality Blast action tomorrow night with a trip south of the river to face our London rivals Surrey at the Oval, before heading straight back into action again on Saturday afternoon, when we host Hampshire at Radlett Cricket Club.
SURREY PREVIEW
Surrey are flying high in the South Group table, sat top, with six wins and one tie from their opening eight matches, with thirteen points on the board already, whilst we’re looking to add to the one victory we secured against Kent Spitfires to give us any chance of progressing in the competition.
A record of one win, one rain off, and six losses sees us sat at the foot of the table, realistically needing to win each of our remaining six matches to give us a shot of moving forwards from the group stages.
Our last outing in the Blast was against Surrey at Lord’s in the return fixture, when for two thirds of their innings we were on top, restricting them to 131 for 7 after 13 overs, only for Tom Curran to go on the attack in the latter stages of their innings and haul them up to a total of 185.
In reply we struggled from the off, losing three wickets in the powerplay, from which we never really recovered, managing a disappointing 129 in reply.
The highlight of an otherwise disappointing night at Lord’s a fortnight ago was Luke Hollman, who shone with the ball, picking up career best figures of 5 for 14 from his four overs.
Friday’s match at the Oval will bring back memories of the same fixture in 2023, when a huge crowd and all those watching on Sky witnessed something quite incredible! The 254 runs we hit in chasing down Surrey’s total still remains the highest ever run chase in the history of English T20 cricket, and oh what we’d do for a repeat of that tomorrow night!
Surrey’s form has been spearheaded with the bat by Jamie Smith, who remains their top run-scorer, with 285 runs in the bag, and he sits as the competition’s sixth leading run scorer overall across both groups. He’s followed by Ollie Pope with 205, Laurie Evans with 196, Tom Curran with 133 and Jason Roy with 122.
For Middlesex, the heavy lifting with the bat in this campaign has come from Max Holden, who leads the way on 176 runs, closely followed by Stephen Eskinazi on 158, Ryan Higgins on 144 and Martin Andersson on 135.
With the ball Sean Abbott has been Surrey’s main weapon this term, with the Australian quick picking up 15 wickets already in the competition, and he sits as the competitions second highest wicket taker overall. Tom Curran sits just one behind on 14, with Gus Atkinson on 10 the only other Surrey bowler to reach double figures, although Dan Lawrence and Spencer Johnson are just one short on 9 wickets apiece.
For Middlesex, it’s Luke Hollman who leads the way with the ball, and by some margin, with 14 wickets to his name in this year’s campaign. It’s clear to see where we’re falling short when Hollman is the only member of the Middlesex bowling unit to hit double figures, with Tom Helm some way behind on 7 and both Blake Cullen and Henry Brookes on 5.
Tomorrow night is a real must win for Middlesex, or any hopes we have of progressing are as good as done and dusted, so whilst the Middlesex team won’t need any more encouragement than the fact that we’re playing against our London rivals, the extra importance of needing a victory tomorrow just adds that little bit more to the game.
We have named a fourteen-man squad for Friday night’s clash with Surrey:
HAMPSHIRE PREVIEW
On Saturday afternoon, Hampshire are our opponents in the Blast, when we return to Radlett Cricket Club for our only Blast match at the Brunton Memorial Ground this season.
We last met Hampshire three weeks ago, when on a cold and wet night at the Utilita Bowl in Southampton, the weather was the only winner, as mid-way through our innings the heavens opened and forced the abandonment of the game with no further play possible.
The corresponding fixture last year was a real nail-biter, with Hampshire running out winners by just 5 runs at Radlett in a game that Middlesex could and arguably should have won.
Hampshire batted first and posted what looked to be an about par total on a wicket that was taking some spin, putting on 164 for 6 in their 20 overs, with Middlesex spin duo Luke Hollman and Josh De Caires picking up four of the visitors' wickets between them.
In reply, despite losing both openers for ducks and being 2 for 2 after 2 overs, Middlesex rallied and were going well, thanks to 53 from Max Holden and 43 from Ryan Higgins. The loss of Holden’s wicket with the score on 105 for 4 in the thirteenth over left us needing 60 off the final seven overs.
From there, the loss of further wickets slowed up the chase, leaving us agonisingly short of the target, hitting 159 for 7 in reply.
Hampshire return to Radlett this year not in the best of form themselves, having only won two of their opening eight matches in 2024 and currently lying sixth in the South Group table.
They’ve not won in any of their last five games, and Middlesex will fancy their chances of securing a much needed win at Radlett, a ground where our win record in better than most.
In the eight T20 matches we’ve played at Radlett, Middlesex have won five of them, one of which was against Hampshire back in 2021. Two of the three defeats we’ve suffered a Radlett however have come at the hands of Hampshire, so calling tomorrow’s game is a real tricky one!
Hampshire’s leading run-scorer this season in the Blast has been Joe Weatherley, with 240 runs, however some way behind are the visitors’ Captain James Vince, with 152, former Middlesex man James Fuller with 115 and Toby Albert with 114.
With the ball Michael Neser has led the way, and like Hollman for Middlesex, the Australian has 14 wickets to his name this term. He stands as the only bowler to have hit double figures, with Chris Wood’s 9, James Fuller’s 8, John Turner’s 7 and Liam Dawson’s 6 next in line.
Statistically both sides look well matched, so Saturday afternoon's encounter could go either way.
Middlesex will be hoping they can pull off a repeat of last year’s heroics at the Oval on Friday night, to ensure they head into Saturday’s clash with something other than pride riding on the result.
As soon as the Blast action comes to an end on Saturday afternoon, spectators at Radlett will be able to remain in their seats, and sit and watch England’s European Championships Quarter Final against Switzerland, so let’s hope that by the time we get to cheering England on to victory on Saturday night, we’ll have already done the same for Middlesex on Friday night and again on Saturday afternoon.
Middlesex have named the same squad of fourteen for Saturday’s clash:
There will be no live stream of the match against Surrey from the Oval, as the game is being shown live on Sky Sports Cricket, however Saturday's game will be available to watch on our live stream, either on the Club's website in the match centre or direct on our YouTube channel.
Surrey
Middlesex
