Finn Can Only Get Better

Big  (I should say now) Medium Harvey reports on a day where he was grateful to have his front door keys so he can see some cricket away from home.  Once there we hear of a revitalised old station and Middle bowler. We also read about a quality bowler struggling for form and some dropped catches, followed by a rousing call to support the Middle. Read on! 

Warwickshire v Middlesex Day 3 Edgbaston 2013

This was my first away trip of the season, my earlier plans to attend Day 2 of our clash with Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge having ended in embarrassing failure. Having got all my stuff together a frantic search for my keys proved to be fruitless. Eventually, after an hour and a half of looking, I decided that if the house was such a mess that I couldn't find something as basic as my keys, then I'd better stay at home and do some serious tidying up. Two days of serious tidying up later my keys still hadn't surfaced, and I concluded that I must have dropped them in the street somewhere between my car and  front door. A week later my wife discovered them in a shoulder bag used to carry nappies and other baby-related stuff when out and about with our 20 month old daughter. The bag concerned had not been used between me having my keys and losing them. The issue had not been our messy house after all, but the activities of a small but very mischievous pair of hands!

This time I was taking no chances. A spare set of keys had been put together and secreted in the kitchen cupboard just in case. They weren't needed, and my journey to Edgbaston proved to be uneventful apart from having to cycle into the teeth of a howling gale between my house and the station.

My journey passed uneventfully until I reached Birmingham New Street Station, which is in the process of being totally remodelled. Even the entrances have been moved and I emerged on an unfamiliar-looking street. I spent a good 20 minutes wandering randomly through the streets of Birmingham looking for landmarks I recognised from previous visits but found none. Eventually I had to ask a policeman the way.

As I arrived at the ground with only a couple of minutes to spare the tannoy was announcing that Middlesex had unsurprisingly declared on the overnight score of 428/5.

Murts and Finny opened the bowling to Porterfield and Evans, who made steady progress with few alarms. The pitch was offering nothing discernible, and the batsmen were content to play it safe and score off the bad balls, of which unfortunately there were too many. Only the introduction of Colly into the attack resulted in some testing stuff after a very mediocre first over. He was getting some decent swing and accounted for Porterfield (20), who edged to Ollie at 2^nd slip. 45/1.

Trott came to the crease and got a reprieve when put down by Ollie at 2^nd slip. It was a sharp chance, low and to his left, but very catchable.

The Iceman came on after 22 overs, but didn't look fit, and was a shadow of his usual self. How wise is it for Middlesex to be bowling him? Dex replaced him just before lunch and the session concluded with Warwicks on 83/1 with Evans on 37 and Trott on 25.

Dex resumed after lunch with Colly, the over rate showing an uncharacteristic +1 on the scoreboard! Trott started well, but was dropped again at slip on 35, this time by Robbo off Colly. This one was a real regulation chance.

Corey doesn't need a leg side

Evans reached a patient and chanceless 50, scored off 130 balls, as the score progressed to 107/1.

Trott had yet another narrow escape when a lifter from Finny struck him on the glove and seemed to stay in the air for an eternity. Unfortunately Colly, the nearest fielder, couldn't quite cover the distance from mid wicket to forward square in time.

With the score on 128/1, Evans (59) had to retire hurt after earlier having been struck on the hand (or the arm, the spectators around me couldn't agree) by Finny. He made so little fuss about it at the time I hadn't even realised he was hurt.

Bell arrived at the crease and Trott progressed to his 50 soon after, smacking a juicy leg-side half volley from Finny to the mid-wicket boundary. 132/1.

Progressing with no further alarms, Trott finally fell for 65, edging Murts to AC at 1^st slip. 158/2.

Troughton, his replacement, departed for a duck in Murts' next over, steering straight to Joe Denly at leg gully. Leg gully is not a position where you often see a fielder stationed – other than in grainy black and white footage of the 1932/33 Ashes series, so this was clearly a pre-planned dismissal. 162/3.

Rain intervened to bring the session to a slightly premature end and an early Tea interval ,with Warwicks on 165/3, and I was expecting a lengthy stoppage, since the rain looked reasonably heavy. I was caught napping by the speed of the resumption, and only a timely Facebook message from Derek telling me to “get back out there and support The Middle” roused me from my tea and scones.

I  hadn't missed much. I wouldn't have missed much if I'd stayed inside for quite a lot longer in fact, apart from some out-of-sorts bowling from Finny, and what could (if you wanted to be unkind) be described as “a procession of part-time filth” leading up to the new ball. In fact, it would be rather too harsh to use such words, because our part time bowlers didn't leak ridiculous quantities of runs, and the new ball wasn't even taken until 2 overs later than it was due. Nevertheless it was unthreatening stuff and not very compelling viewing. Maybe it was to do with keeping up the over rate, but the Middlesex over rate was well in credit according to the scoreboard.

Over rate bowling

Bell's 50 came off 90 balls, Ambrose's shortly afterwards off 89, but not before he had been horribly dropped by Robbo at 3^rd slip off Colly while on 48.

 Just when the curtain of dark, damp cloud began to fall on a cold and fairly nondescript day's cricket, Bell (62) departed, LBW to Colly (258/4), followed not long afterwards by Ambrose (55) in the same manner to the impressive Colly, who was easily the pick of the Middlesex bowlers today. A handful of balls later, bad light and rain brought an end to proceedings   At 267/5 the hutch is open, and depending on whether Evans is able to bat again, the wickets figure could effectively be 6. Even so, with Warwickshire only needing 12 more runs to avoid the follow-on, it would be a tall order indeed for Middlesex to gain anything better than a draw.

Once again those who made the trip had to sit through the now familiar spectacle of Warwickshire playing for a draw. In this instance, given the situation, they can probably be forgiven, but the Warwickshire Bores tag remains intact. As for Middlesex, Colly was outstanding, but dropped catches proved expensive, and Finny had a bad day at the office. He sometimes made the batsmen uncomfortable with short stuff, but bowled far too many half volleys on or around leg stump. Is he falling victim to conflicting coaching advice between England and Middlesex set-ups concerning his run-up, I wonder? Whatever the case he is a class act, and once he does click again he will be back with a vengeance. Of that I am absolutely 100% certain