Middlesex make an eagerly awaited return to four-day red-ball action tomorrow, with Northamptonshire the visitors to Merchant Taylors’ School in Division Two of the Vitality County Championship.
We have named a squad of fourteen for the clash, with the side led by red-ball Captain, Toby Roland-Jones, who will disappointingly go into the game without talismanic all-rounder Ryan Higgins, who misses out on this one, unavailable for selection, having injured his knee in the recent Metro Bank One-Day Cup clash against Hampshire. He is rested and continues to improve with rehabilitation under the care of the Club’s medical staff.
First Team Coach, Richard Johnson, has five seamers in the squad to call upon, with Roland-Jones, Ethan Bamber, Henry Brookes, Tom Helm and Ishaan Kaushal all named, with spin options coming from Josh De Caires, Leus du Plooy, Nathan Fernandes and Luke Hollman.
The batting ranks sees the experienced pairing of Sam Robson and Mark Stoneman both named, along with keeper-batsman Jack Davies, De Caires, du Plooy, Stephen Eskinazi, Fernandes and Max Holden all included.
With Middlesex’s involvement in both white-ball formats having now come to an end, the side can focus purely on the County Championship run-in, with five further games remaining, and promotion very much still the target for the season.
We pick up our campaign with us sat in second spot in the Division Two table, trailing Sussex at the top by 23 points, and leading third placed Yorkshire by four points.
Having gone unbeaten in our opening eight red-ball matches, we closed the gap on Sussex to just eight points, however the first loss of our campaign last time out against Leicestershire at the end of June saw us lose ground on the leaders, and Yorkshire’s maximum points win against Derbyshire saw them bunch things up in the promotion push.
With just five games remaining, with both Yorkshire still to play in a fortnight’s time, and Sussex to come in the final week of the season, the promotion race promises to go all the way this year.
With the bottom three sides also still to play, with Northants this week, Gloucestershire in three weeks’ time and then Derbyshire the following week, we’ll be targeting strong performances and heavy points hauls in these games to keep us right in contention ahead of that crucial trip to Hove in late September.
Northamptonshire come to Merchant Taylors’ in seventh place in the Division Two table, one off the bottom of the table, and yet to taste victory in their 2024 County Championship campaign.
Two losses and seven draws from their opening nine games sees them sat on 97 points, six behind Gloucestershire in sixth and 19 ahead of Derbyshire at the foot of the table.
VITALITY COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP - DIVISION TWO TABLE - ON 21 AUGUST 2024
| Team | P | W | T | D | L | A | Bat | Bowl | Adj | Pts |
| SUSSEX | 9 | 5 | 0 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 24 | 25 | -3 | 150 |
| MIDDLESEX | 9 | 3 | 0 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 18 | 21 | 0 | 127 |
| YORKSHIRE | 9 | 2 | 0 | 5 | 2 | 0 | 24 | 27 | 0 | 123 |
| LEICESTERSHIRE | 9 | 1 | 0 | 7 | 1 | 0 | 22 | 21 | 0 | 115 |
| GLAMORGAN | 9 | 1 | 1 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 16 | 20 | 0 | 108 |
| GLOUCESTERSHIRE | 9 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 1 | 20 | 19 | 0 | 103 |
| NORTHAMPTONSHIRE | 9 | 0 | 0 | 7 | 2 | 0 | 19 | 22 | 0 | 97 |
| DERBYSHIRE | 9 | 0 | 0 | 5 | 3 | 1 | 14 | 17 | -1 | 78 |
In what’s been a disappointing season to date for this week’s visitors, two batters have really stood out as ones to watch, and they’ve featured in all nine of Northamptonshire matches in the Championship thus far. Emilio Gay has amassed 860 runs at an average of 61.42, whilst Luke Procter has notched 726 runs at 55.84.
Hot on their heels, with 672 runs is Ricardo Vasconcelos, hit at an average of 61.09 from seven matches to date, and he, and both Gay and Procter all sit within the top 25 run-scorers in the country at this stage of the season.
With the ball, Ben Sanderson has been the real standout performer for Northants this season, proving his quality again as the visitors’ leading wicket-taker, with his 29 wickets coming at 28.06.
Sanderson is Division Two’s leading wicket taker this term, however he’s been some way ahead of the rest of the Northants attack, with no other bowler getting past 20 wickets yet. Luke Procter’s 19 is next, with Siddharth Kaul and Liam Patterson-White both trailing some way behind with 13.
Middlesex will be looking to get back to winning ways this week to maintain the push for promotion, and we’ll be hoping to go one better than the high scoring drawn affair we saw up in Northampton earlier this season, when the Kookaburra ball saw both sides’ batters prosper and both sides’ bowlers toil away for little reward. With this round being played with the Dukes ball, ahead of another two week trial with the Kookaburra, we’ll not be expecting anything like the bonanza of runs we saw in April, and it should be a much closer content between bat and ball.
Middlesex have named the following fourteen-man squad to face Northamptonshire this week, starting tomorrow at 11am:
LIVE STREAM
For those unable to attend the match in person in Northwood, you can follow all the action live on the Club's live stream of the game, available in the match centre on our website or direct on the Club's YouTube channel - and don't forget to subscribe for free!
TICKET INFORMATION
Middlesex members of course gain free entry to the match on production of their valid 2024 membership card, and they can also bring guests with them if in possession of a Season Guest Pass, but remember, the member MUST be present at the gate with the guest presenting the Season Guest Pass to gain gain entry.
Tickets are still available to purchase for the game, via here, or they can be bought on the gate on the day, priced at £15 for adults, £10 for over 65s and just £5 for under 16s. Car parking can also be purchased via this link or can be bought on the day, priced at £6 for non-members and £3 for members.
Middlesex
Northamptonshire
