A Pollard Obstructs the Road to a Panthers Route to Victory
Announced last night
By Darren Gosling
June 11 2010
Darren Gosling reports on the Panthers defeat that bought painful memories of our nemesis in Antigua. A game for the taking if it wasn't for that Pollard getting in the way.
Having committed myself to write a report on this match, I was tempted to simply write “their overseas player came off and ours didn’t”, but suspecting Kev wouldn’t be too happy with that here goes……..
Bouyed by Surrey’s abysmal performance the previous night, I went to Lords in good spirits and with the prolific Morgan back in the ranks alongside the Aussie legend Gilchrist (surely he couldn’t fail again) I was hopeful of the Panthers first victory.
Morgan for Stirling was the only change from the side beaten by the Sharks last week, while Somerset made two changes from their side also beaten by the Sharks in their opening game. Waller replaced Turner while the arrival of big hitting West Indian IPL star Keiron Pollard meant that former Middx favourite Compton missed out, though another former favourite Peter Trego featured as did Murali Kartik, one of the stars of our 2008 triumph, on his first return to Lords.
MIDDX INNINGS
Shaggy won the toss and elected to bat, with Gilchrist and Newman opening once again. Amazingly Gilchrist blocked out a maiden over from Phillips – a ‘feat’ not seen since Ben Hutton in 2003. Newman hit two boundaries off Thomas before Gilchrist hit the first ball of the third over straight back to Phillips for a comfortable caught and bowled, departing for a seven ball duck.
Dexter then joined Newman and the pair proceeded to make good use of the powerplay overs. With 20 runs off the sixth and final powerplay over (from de Bruyn) at 45-1 we were looking good.
Then came the middle part of the innings when as per last week the introduction of the slower bowler put the breaks on the Middx run-rate. Murali’s three consecutive overs from the Nursery End, yielded only 10 singles off the bat for Middx and with that pressure came wickets at the Pavilion End. Trego accounted for Dexter (c Trescothick) for 29 (18 balls) and Pollard a removed Newman (c Buttler) for 26 (25 balls).
This brought together arguably our two finest one-day batsmen Ace and Morgs, though sadly we were already in the 10th over (with the score at 68-3). Unfortunately Ace still looks to be struggling of late in the one-day format and when he was caught on the boundary by Thomas off the bowling of Pollard for 24, he departed with the lowest strike rate (77) of the scoring Middx batsmen. Score 121-4 (16.3 overs).
Crucially Morgs only faced 4 of the next 15 balls as Berg (b Thomas 7) and Malan (c de Bruyn b Pollard 8) departed with the overs fast running out and Middx on 139-6 (19 overs).
Eoin then showed everyone just why he is the main man for England at present and with a full array of shots proceeded to take 16 runs of Thomas’ final over to lift the Middx score to 155-6 at the close of the innings. Morgan finished 48 not out off just 30 balls (or 5 overs), what a pity he only faced 25% of the balls in our innings and who knows what score we may have posted had he batted higher.
Anyway, the general consensus was that 155 would normally be a reasonably competitive score BUT with the destructive (and deep) batting line-up Somerset possessed may be it wasn’t quite enough?
SOMERSET INNINGS
Once again Middx made excellent early progress in restricting our opponents to 31-4 from the six powerplay overs. Kieswetter (2) was first to go top edging an absolute skyer which Gilchrist held (Som 10-1), then following a mix up between Hildreth and Trescothick - Murts carefully took aim and threw down the stumps to have the former England opener run out for 20 (Som 25-2). Tres did not look best pleased as he walked past Hildreth without a word on his return to the pavilion. Pedro made a complete mess of Buttler’s wicket in dismissing him for just a single (Som 29-3) and finally Murts had Hildreth caught by Smith for just 5 runs.
The bad news was that the flurry of early wickets now brought together Pollard and Trego and those of us present were to witness one of the most destructive batting displays ever seen at Lords. Having spent one over sizing up Shaggy, Pollard smashed Tom Smith for 16 (including two sixes) off his solitary over before Shaggy returned only to get the same treatment…..including a feat not achieved since Albert Trott in 1899. Pollard dispatched a delivery from Shaggy OVER the Lords Pavilion for the one of the biggest sixes you are ever likely to see. Two balls later Trego also hit Shaggy for a maximum off the final ball of the over – it was to be Shaggy’s last.
The mayhem did not stop there though as Pollard continued to smash the Middx bowlers to allparts and another huge six, this time off Dexter had the Middx coaching staff fleeing the dugout! Shortly after running out Trego (courtesy of Gilchrist) with a poor call for an impossible single, Pollard dispatched Malan into the Grandstand to bring up his 50 off just 25 balls (0 x 4, 6 x 6) as Somerset ended the 14th over on 115-5.
Once again Middx lost the contest in the middle overs, with our slow bowlers heavily punished whilst our opponents slow bowlers seem to tie us right down. Overs 7 - 13 yielded 47 runs for Middx and whilst Somerset plundered 78. Middx spinners bowled 6 overs for 60 runs, Somerset 5 overs for 32 runs. It was a very similar case last week against the Sharks of course.
With de Bruyn joining Pollard at the crease and happy to play a supporting role, Pollard continued to flay the Middx attack – Pedro the only bowler not to be hit for six (a West Indian pact perhaps?). Pollard took Somerset past the Middx total with 13 balls to spare, finishing on 89 not out from 45 balls with 7 x 4 and 7 x 6 and deservedly of course picked up the Man of the Match Award.
For those of us that travelled to Antigua for the Stanford series it was a painful reminder of what Pollard can do. I still vividly recall Hendo being dispatched out of the ground on several occasions as Pollard scored 26 off just 9 balls.
The only consolation is we only have to face Pollard once more this season and get to play Surrey twice !!
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Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:14:16:02:32 by comebackgatt.
However,even though it was a very good knock from Pollard I am not sure it was that special in my opinion.
As an example,lets look at our own club and 2008. The innings from Malan in our never to be forgotten quarter final at of all places The Oval.
How about the brutal knock from Henderson, in our unexpected triumph against the international line up of Durham in the semi final.
Perhaps the best of all, how about Shah's innings in the miracle that was the final against Kent.
All these innings, were in my opinion superior to Pollards' particularly bearing in mind ,and I have to be honest, the bowling faced by Malan,Henderson and Shah was infinitely better than the bowling faced by Pollard.
I believe our defeat. was more down to our inability to push home a winning position, than anything that the opposition did.At the moment our boys do not have the confidence to cross that winning line.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:11:01:01:07 by lower pavilion.
Nice detail Darren. Kartik still a top T20 bowler.
I was there and it was just my opinion.
1) In this competition,at the moment,and let us hope we improve, our bowling is not great and Pollard toojk advantage of it.It was a good innings but in my humble opinion,and that is all, I have seen better.
2} On the three examples I have given ,in my opinion,the bowling was superior.
Refer to the posting by alan r on this game on 10th June at 8.33.I agree completely with what he said about Pollard' batting.
However to be fair to Pollard, he can only play the bowling served up to him and he did that well.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 2010:06:11:11:46:44 by lower pavilion.
I am surprised none of the reports mention that Pedro Collins bowled someone (I forgot which batsman) off a free-hit, except the only spectators in the ground to realise it was a free-hit were those who - like me - noticed the umpire had outstretched his arm. I didn't hear the umpire call no-ball (usually I hear these calls, although obviously the crowd were loud on Wednesday) and unlike in most Clydesdale Bank 40 matches it wasn't mentioned by the announcer.
I wouldn't say I am consoled that two of our remaining matches are against Surrey, but I am consoled by the fact that no other county in our group has to play against last season's finalists - champions Sussex and runners-up Somerset - less than Middlesex. We now only have to play each team once more while everyone else has to play them twice, with the obvious exception of Sussex and Somerset themselves as they have already met once, and so only have to play each other once more.
Quote:lower pavilion
However,even though it was a very good knock from Pollard I am not sure it was that special in my opinion.
As an example,lets look at our own club and 2008. The innings from Malan in our never to be forgotten quarter final at of all places The Oval.
How about the brutal knock from Henderson, in our unexpected triumph against the international line up of Durham in the semi final.
Perhaps the best of all, how about Shah's innings in the miracle that was the final against Kent.
All these innings, were in my opinion superior to Pollards' particularly bearing in mind ,and I have to be honest, the bowling faced by Malan,Henderson and Shah was infinitely better than the bowling faced by Pollard.
Dawid Malan's 103 off 54 v Lancashire came against a bowling attack including Glen Chapple, Dominic Cork, Andrew Flintoff and Saj Mahmood. I'm not going to mention Simon Marshall and Francois du Plessis in the same breath as those four bowlers (although taking du Plessis's bowling performance in this match out of the equation, I think he was seen as one of Lancashire's best players before and after that match), but I must mention them as I will forever associate them with being responsible for Malan's innings. May I add that looking at the date of that match - 8th July 2008 - I have just realised that Middlesex's visit to The Oval to play Surrey in this season's competition will also be on the same date. I think some people call it St. Dawid's Day.
Tyron Henderson's 59 not out off 21 v Durham came against a bowling attack including Liam Plunkett, Shaun Pollock and Steve Harmison.
Owais Shah's 75 off 35 v Kent came against a bowling attack including Yasir Arafat, Azhar Mahmood and Ryan McLaren.
And as those innings were in the quarter-final, semi-final and final stage respectively, you know they were against teams who were there on merit, which cannot be said for group stage matches such as Wednesday. Lancashire finished runners-up in their group (winning six out of 10 matches). Durham finished top of their group (winning six out of 10 matches), went onto win that year's County Championship and reached the semi-finals of that year's Friends Provident Trophy. Kent it has to be said didn't fair too well in their group as they finished third (winning six out of 10 matches, beating Middlesex by 25 runs at Beckenham but losing by six runs at Uxbridge), although they were runners-up in the Friends Provident Trophy.
Hopefully Middlesex can emulate in 2010 some of the feats that Lancashire, Durham, Kent and of course Middlesex achieved in 2008.
Click here to read why I sensationally sacrificed the big bucks of Chelsea for the adventure of Watford
(image on left not representative of how relative my support of Watford is to my support of Middlesex)
I simply cannot understand how you say men the quality of all the players concerned, lack the "confidence to cross that winning line", in a game of T/20. Come on, most have International experience and recently won 2 CC games.
Quote:Vic Demain
LP, as you know, I wouldn't bother travelling to see a bish bash game without good reason and as such was not there to witness any of the innings apart from Malan's excellent effort.
I simply cannot understand how you say men the quality of all the players concerned, lack the "confidence to cross that winning line", in a game of T/20. Come on, most have International experience and recently won 2 CC games.
Personally, I have every confidence we will win sooner or later, although the longer we wait for our first win the less chance we will have of qualifying or even salvaging the slightest hint of pride.
Click here to read why I sensationally sacrificed the big bucks of Chelsea for the adventure of Watford
(image on left not representative of how relative my support of Watford is to my support of Middlesex)
Forgive me.When you referred to my initial posting as 'nonsense' on reflection you could have been referring to.
1} The fact I said the report was great.
2} My reference to Pollard's innings being good but not special.It was this comment, to which I thought you were referring.
3] My reference to our boys lack of confidence, to what I now understand,you were referring, when you described my posting as 'nonsense'.
You must agree then your response was somewhat ambiguous.
Having watched sport for over 50 years, I must disagree with you completely on this issue.
I do not care how experienced some of our players are.Confidence is everything.
Even the most experienced players can go through a spell where they lack confidence and this affects their play.
In both games, we found ourselves in a winning position and ended up losing, and that could affect the confidence of the most senior of our players.
If we can somehow get a win tonight, then hopefully, all is not lost,as after tonight there is still 13 more games to play in the group stages.
I'm not sure we can too much into our performance in this one. When someone like Keiron Pollard does that to you, well, you just shake his hand and say 'well done mate'...I thought our bowling was pretty good, and thought Malan's three dot balls in a row to Pollard there at the end took quite a bit of mettle...
I'm happy for KP. He has made the move to Somerset and I wish him all the best.
The ability to bounce back is a good sign.
Barmy Kev
I'm only here for the tele