Middlesex made it back-to-back wins in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup yesterday, backing up last week's win against Northamptonshire Steelbacks with a comprehensive victory against Kent Spitfires at Beckenham by five wickets, and we head straight back into 50-over action again tomorrow against Durham at Radlett Cricket Club.
For tomorrow's clash at Radlett, First Team Coach, Richard Johnson, has named an unchanged squad of fourteen from yesterday's victory, who delivered the kind of performance in Beckenham that he'd been calling for throughout the campaign to-date, as with both bat and ball, the side's plans came together almost perfectly.
At Beckenham last week, in Kent's only game in South London so far in the campaign, a difficult deck had seen Hampshire dismissed for just 168 runs before Kent knocked off the runs for the the loss of six wickets, so a few eyebrows were raised yesterday when the day began with Kent Captain, Jack Leaning, winning the toss and electing to bat first, as Middlesex were asked to bowl on a surface that again looked like it might provide plenty of assistance for the bowlers early on.
Ethan Bamber, recalled to the side for yesterday's clash took the new ball with Ishaan Kaushal, and the first breakthrough came quickly, as Beyers Swanepoel was caught behind off Kaushal for just 2 in the second over of the game.
Kent recovered with a partnership of 73 for the second wicket, although from there Middlesex's attack built on that good early start and made regular inroads into the Kent line-up, with the home side never able to get a foothold in their innings, which eventually came to an end in the 45th over, with 204 runs on the board.
Wickets were shared around amongst the bowling unit, with Henry Brookes (2 for 35), Josh De Caires (2 for 25) and Nathan Fernandes (2 for 31) were the pick of the bowlers. Bamber, Kaushal and Luke Hollman picked up the rest, as Middlesex were set a target of 205 for victory.
A shake up of the batting order, for the second game running, saw Joe Cracknell and Nathan Fernandes open the innings, and after a shaky start, which saw Fernandes fall for 8 and Sam Robson depart for 3, Cracknell and Robbie White, who was making his first appearance of the summer, got things back on track.
A fine 88 from Cracknell, 50 from White, and 35 from Jack Davies took Middlesex to the brink of victory, before skipper Mark Stoneman, who had dropped down the order, came in to finish the job off with Luke Hollman, who got us over the line inside 32 overs, to make an enormous positive impact on our net run rate, which in a tightly contested group, could make all the difference.
Middlesex moved to joint fifth in the Group A table, but sixth on net run rate as a result of yesterday's win, on four points, with tomorrow's opponents Durham also on four points, sat in seventh, by virtue of a lower run rate than Middlesex.
Durham's campaign to date saw them kick off with a win against Lancashire at Sedbergh School, beating the home side by 57 runs, which was followed by defeat to Worcestershire, who bowled them out for just 167 to secure a 93 run win. Another heavy defeat followed, as they were again bowled out cheaply, this time for just 108 by Somerset, who won by 133 runs, before Durham rallied in their last encounter, beating Northants by 4 wickets in Chester-le-Street.
With Middlesex heading into tomorrow's clash in winning form, we'll be hopeful of keeping that momentum up against a side who have struggled for consistency and are clearly vulnerable with the bat. Another performance like that against the Spitfires yesterday and Middlesex will be hopeful of securing another two points on the board.
As well as tomorrow's match against Durham, we also take on Lancashire at Emirates Old Trafford (Thursday) and Somerset at Lord's (Sunday) in what is a huge week in our One-Day Cup campaign.
Tickets are still available for our match against Durham at Radlett, and can be purchased HERE.
For those who can't make it to Radlett tomorrow, the Enhanced Live Stream will be available via the match centre on the Middlesex website.
MIDDLESEX SQUAD FOR TOMORROW'S MATCH AGAINST DURHAM:
Middlesex
Durham Cricket
