Notts so Good but Notts so Bad

Darren Gosling gives a comprehensive report on day 1 with many twists and turns. This sums up the day nicely. Read on

Preview & toss

Notts came to Lords in buoyant mood after their opening round win v Lancs. Summed up nicely by our old friend Vic on facebook “A win without the likes of Taylor, Adams, Shazad & Siddle playing. Happy with that!”.

Middlesex by contrast having suffered a very disappointing opening at Hove were looking to bounce back in our first home match of the season.

Both teams made two changes, Notts preferring the fit again Taylor (for Hales) and gave a County Championship ‘dayboo’ to Peter Siddle (in for Ball).

Middlesex meanwhile brought in Berg (for ‘dad to be’ Dexter) and Rayner for TRJ.

Notts won the toss and on a sunny but slightly breezy day with blue skies overhead it was no surprise they elected to bat first.

Morning session

Mullaney and Jaques opened for Notts with Murts (Nursery End) and Harris (Pavillion End) opening the attack for the Middle, with both bowlers on the money and giving very little way in the early exchanges.

Having eventually got off the mark with a 4, in the sixth over Jaques very audibly nicked the ball behind to Simpson off the bowling of Harris but umpire Willey remained motionless (was he awake?).

Luckily it mattered not, as having added just a further 5 runs Jaques repeated the same shot to the same combo. To his credit Jaques walked as Willey still remained motionless and probably would have remained so as the second nick wasn’t as loud as the first one! Anyway Jaques departed with 14 and Notts were 16-1.

Harris with 6-3-14-1 and Murts 8-3-15-0 completed their miserly opening spells and were replaced with Finn and Berg respectively.

Runs were still proving hard to come by and Lumb (in at 3) edged wide of the slip cordon off Finn before a few overs later badly timing a pull shot off Finn and skied the ball to Robson at square leg. Lumb departed for 17 leaving Notts 50-2 in the 20^th over.

James Taylor then came to the crease and made the wicket all of sudden look easy to score on. Off the mark with a 4, Taylor then took 10 off one over from Harris who had returned to the attack, this time trying his luck from the Nursery End.

In no time Taylor with 22 (off 21 balls) had passed Mullaney 21 (89 balls) as Notts closed for lunch on 75-2. Though I felt the Middle had slightly shaded the first session, Taylor’s innings had certainly shifted some momentum back to Notts.

Afternoon session

For much of the opening half of the second session it was a case of the hare (Taylor) and the tortoise (Mullaney), as all our bowlers bowled tight spells without any penetration. Murts particularly unlucky with a spell of 5-3-6-0.

To give him some credit the tortoise did hit a boundary to bring up Notts 100 in the 39^th over, while the hare reached his 50 (off just 63 balls) two overs later with a flurry of boundaries off Harris & Berg.

At 131-2 the afternoon session definitely appeared to be going Notts’ way but Harris then really found his length and bowled an excellent spell of 7-4-14-2 including a double wicket maiden in the 48^th over to reduce Notts to 131-4. First Tayor (62) was trapped lbw, then Samit Patel departed for a 4-ball duck edging behind to Simpson.

Wessels in at six became the fourth Notts player to get off the mark with a 4 and two overs later hit the first 6 of the day off a tiring Murtagh as he, like Taylor before him, seemed to find scoring fairly easy.

Now with his fifty in sight, Mullaney at last upped the tempo hitting Rayner for 6 and Finn for 4, the latter shot finally bring up the 50 (off 171 balls). However his joy was short lived as very next ball he slashed at a delivery from Finn and Malan took the catch at slip to leave Notts 164-5.

Skipper Chris Read joined Wessels at the crease (making 4 wicket-keepers on the pitch) but no further mishaps saw Notts close another evenly contested session on 178-5. I thought Harris bowled very well and took wickets at a crucial time for the second consecutive session when Notts again looked like they were beginning to pull away.

Tea interval

The break saw Chairman Ian Lovett and President Clive Radley unveil a plaque in the Middlesex Room to recognise the 29 Middlesex cricketers who had been named the Wisden Cricketer of the Year over the last 150 years.

Around half of those players still living attended the ceremony and were warmly applauded. Previous winners in attendance included Peter Parfitt(’63), JT Murray(’67), Mike Brearley(’77), Clive Radley(’79), Mike Gatting(’84), Angus Fraser’96) plus Charles Robins who attended on behalf of his late father Walter Robins(1930).

Evening session

I must confess that having attended the tea interval ceremony I did miss the opening few overs, but returned to find Notts without further loss as Chris Read took two off Finn to bring up the Notts 200 and first bonus point.

A maiden by Berg was then followed by 31 runs in 4 overs as Wessels and Read looked to make the most of the ‘old ball’ and up the tempo. During this flurry of scoring Wessels completed his 50 (off 86 balls) and Notts had reached 243-5 when the second new ball was taken.

Having been denied the first new ball, Finn wasted no time with the second and with his third delivery removed Read’s off-stump to leave Notts 250-6. The remainder of the over was also eventful with Finn striking Siddle on the arm guard first ball he faced with a rising delivery before Siddle became yet another to get off the mark with a 4.

In his next over Finn continued in commanding form and had Wessels caught at second slip by Rayner for 58 leaving Notts 259-7. I thought Finn bowled very well all day but his stint with the new ball was definitely his best.

But yet again just as the Middle appeared to be getting on top, Notts countered attacked through Siddle and Fletcher and overs 90 to 92 saw 33 runs scored before Siddle fell off the last ball of the 92^nd over for 40 (off 35 balls, with 5 x 4 and 1 x 6).

Siddle certainly enjoyed his first Championship match with the bat and had brought up the Notts 300 shortly before departing.

Carter then joined Fletcher and they safely negotiated the final few overs to close the day on 315-8.

Summary

All in all a very entertaining day’s cricket in which both team’s will feel reasonably satisfied but also probably feel they could be in slightly better positions had they not lost momentum when seemingly in command.

Finn and Harris with 4 wickets apiece were excellent and will be hoping to complete 5-fors tomorrow as the Middle will look to wrap up the tail early and begin making inroads to the Notts lead.