Undone at Uxbridge

"Winsky Major" provides this excellent report on the events at Uxbridge yesterday. Not the result that Middlesex wanted, but don't blame the messenger for that. Many thanks to "The Major" for this report.

We arrived at Uxbridge station about half-an-hour before the match started. Luckily, we saw a bus outside the station which took us up the hill not far from the ground. On the way, we looked out the window and we saw Barmy Kev struggling up the hill in the heat. When we got to the ground it was quite full, but we managed to find two seats in the front row, which Jonathan was pleased about after his view was obstructed on Thursday at The Oval.

Middlesex won the toss and decided to bat first. By the time the first ball was bowled, there was hardly a spare seat and quite a few people standing.

Overs 1-6

David Warner and Neil Dexter opened the batting for the Panthers and Dominic Cork opened the bowling from the Gatting Way End. Two runs came off the first over. Chris Wood then opened the bowling from the Pavilion End. Dexter hit the second ball of the over for four, and then the following ball he was caught at extra cover by Cork with the score on 6. After two overs, the score was 7-1. Cork continued the bowling, Ace nudged a four just beyond Nic Pothas the wicket-keeper to made the score 12-1 at end of the third over. Wood continued from the Pavilion End, and off his first ball Ace hit him for six followed by another four in a productive over for the Panthers making the score 23-1.

Abdul Razzaq came on for the fifth over to replace Cork and his fifth ball Ace was at it again, smashing a second six, making the score 31-1 after five overs. Daniel Christian came on for Wood for the sixth over, the final of the Powerplay, where not much happened, except Warner ran a dodgy two and just made it. At the end of the Powerplay, the Panthers were 35-1, Warner on 5 and Shah on 24.

Overs 7-10

Danny Briggs, the slow bowler, came on to replace Razzaq. Ace showed his intentions by coming down the ground and smacking him over his head for four and in the same over Warner struck his first boundary down to fine-leg followed by a two and another boundary to bring up the 50 in the seventh over. Sean Ervine came on for the next over to replace Christian, but only four runs were scored to make the score 54-1. Warner on 18 and Shah on 30. Christian returned to bowl from the Gatting Way End and his very first ball had Warner caught by Neil McKenzie at mid-off for a very disappointing 18.

Are the Panthers fans going to see a decent innings from Warner before he returns to Australia? Unfortunately, he hasn't performed yet with the bat for Middlesex, which is disappointing as he can be explosive when set. Dawid Malan was the next batsman to come in and was nearly caught first ball. At the end of the 9th over Middlesex were 59-2. A repeat of the previous over, this time Malan was out to the very first ball of the over, caught by Michael Carberry at square-leg of the bowling of Ervine for only 3. Next in was Scott Newman, who has started to score runs on a regular basis in the one-day format. The second ball he faced, he scored a four to make the score 66-3 at the halfway stage.

Overs 11-15

Razzaq came on and another productive over for the Royals when only two runs were scored, making it a very disappointing 68-3. Wood came on to replace Ervine for the 12th over, and yet another boundary for Ace to push to score onto 77-3 with Ace on 40 and Newman on 10. Cork came on to replace Wood for the 13th over and his third, and during the over dismissed Newman lbw 11 to make the score 79-4. The Iceman was next in and at the end of the over the score was 82-4.

Christian came back and first ball Gareth Berg hit a four, then Christian over-stepped, so it was a free-hit, but Berg was unable to score any runs from it. However, the following ball was smashed to the boundary to make it a productive over for the Panthers, the score now being 96-4 after 14 overs. Briggs bowled the 15th over and Ace pushed a quick two to bring up the 100, then the Iceman scored a third four and just as we thought he was all set to make another good innings he got caught by Carberry at mid-wicket for 16 with score on 105-5.

Overs 16-20

Tyron Henderson was next in and anyone who read him saying don't drive past Park Road should not have taken any notice as he was out without troubling the scorers caught by James Vince at long-off. Next in was a welcoming return to Uxbridge for Ben Scott and he showed his intentions with a four off the very first ball he faced off Ervine and the score after 16 overs was Nelson for 6. In the 17th over, Briggs came on to bowl and during the over Shah brought up his 50 with two sixes and four fours in 39 balls.

At the end of that over Middlesex were 115-6. The 18th over was bowled by Ervine, his second ball Ace hit his third six. This was followed by five wides and at the end of the over Middlesex were 130-6, Ace on 59 and Scott on 9. In the 19th over, Cork came on for his final over. Ben Scott hit his first ball for a single and the very next ball Ace came out of his crease and smacked him straight over his head for his fourth six, but the best shot of the match was yet to come when Scott played a Dilscoop over Pothas' head for an unexpected four to make the score 145-6 with one over to go. Wood came on from the Pavilion End. Scott pulled a shot for four followed by a single to bring up the 150. During the over, Ace hit a six into Park Road followed by a two and then there was another free-hit which Ace smashed for four to the long-on boundary.

Unfortunately, off the last ball of the innings Ace was caught by Ervine at long-off for 80 and Middlesex finished on 164-7 with Scott left unbeaten on 20 ending Middlesex's highest-ever partnership for the seventh wicket, 59 off 4.3 overs. Off the last three overs, Middlesex manged to get 49 runs to give them some hope on what looked like a good batting track.

At the break we decided to take a walk and said hello to Beefy and Kimmy, then it was back to our seats.

Hampshire innings

Carberry and Jimmy Adams opened the batting for the Royals and any hopes of Middlesex's score of 164 being enough was soon dashed when the openers put on 89 for the first wicket after nine overs. Things were not helped when Pedro Collins proved his catching was as good as his fielding when he dropped Carberry on just 13. He went on to make 41 off just 28 balls. Tyron Henderson went for 13 off his first over and the very next over the Iceman went for 22, and in the space of just two overs Middlesex had conceded 35 runs.

Shah came on for his only over, dismissed Carberry with his first ball (caught by Berg at backward-point) and yet bowled no further overs. Next to go was Adams, caught by Warner at long-on off Berg for an entertaining 64 off 44 with 10 fours with the score on 139-2 after 15.1 overs. Vince came in and made 24 before being caught by Dexter at extra cover off Berg to make the score 145-3 after 16 overs. Hampshire lost another wicket on 146 with Razzaq run out, which meant they had lost three wickets for seven runs in eight balls.

But with only 19 more runs needed, Ervine made sure that this was not going to be the Panthers' day when he saw them over the line by being 17 not out at the end which meant they had won by six wickets.

The only good part of the match was Ace's innings to show he was on fire, and it was also good to see Scott in the runs in the end, being 20 not out.