Lots of positives

London Leprechaun gives us lots of postives on a day that lasted a lot longer then most people expected and gave everyone who was there a day to remember. And we even start the report from last night. Some start to the season.

First positive of the day is the glorious sunshine, so  I can set off for Lords in an optimistic frame of mind.  The second positive is thinking about the record winning score ever by a English county: 502 by yes - Middlesex against; you've got it: Notts! When I mentioned this to Nick Compton at the Seaxe Awards evening last night he did not dismiss it out of hand but said they will reassess at tea! Third positive. Our batsmen are still thinking confident. In fact all the team were at the Awards night and looking chipper, even Dawid Malan with his arm in a fiercely bandaged sling. And seeing some of our outstanding young talent receiving awards is always good. How many positives is that, and I'm only at Mile End!

I made it the ground not long after the start.  Not too many in the ground and it all felt pretty quiet. But quiet was good. The only way to take today was in bite sized chunks – of time; of overs, even of runs.  And for most of the morning session things looked good. Both our Nicks were battling well; neither totally fluent but there were some promising shots by Gubbins – a particularly sweet cover drive and a perfectly timed straight drive come to mind; and Compo showed the obduracy we remember from before.  The wicket seemed to behave and the only real alarm came from some dodgy running and one scary moment when a better throw might have done for Gubbins.  There was time to relax a little and take time out to speculate why Middlesex were putting out an appeal for a legal practioner to make themselves known to the Middlesex office.  Never heard that request before.

It was almost a perfect morning until just before lunch, when Patil – partly bowling to get the overrate back finally broke through Gubbins defence. But he had played his part and his willingness to battle was a great sign for the future – another positive! Lunch with just one more wicket down was good but the pattern of this match has been that wickets have fallen more in the middle session, so it was still a slightly nervous interval, and I was not sure whether to be reassured or more nervous by the sight of Adam Voges heading to the nets over lunch.  But it was good to see that Neil Dexter got runs at Radlett – shame he did not get a 100.

The post lunch session started a bid oddly. Adam Voges played a ball from Patel; umpires signalled over, everyone started to change ends, but the scoreboard stayed determinedly on five balls bowled.  Radio conversations ensued and sure enough everyone trooped back to finish the over. That aside the afternoon continued relatively tranquilly.  Voges looked solid and looked set for the duration while unleashing occasional cracking shots all round the wicket.  Comp was getting more fluent and it felt a bit like he had never been away.  The only real danger came with another near run out – only saved because James Taylor missed an easy direct hit.  I had forgotten that batting with Compo can be an adventure for his partner.

The wicket looked like Lord’s wickets often do on the last day; pretty flat and it was a real surprise when Gurney got two successive balls to take the glove of first Compo and then Paul Stirling. It was the first real misbehaviour all afternoon and Gurney had looked the most threatening. Why though do left arm bowlers always look like windmills – all twirly arms. Remember Aaron Llaraman? 

Things could have gone pear shaped then, but Simmo stood firm and he and Voges took us to tea in a good place though still with over 30 overs to go.

Lots of Notts fielders

It was after tea that the drama really started.  First the dismissal of Simmo and then especially with the wicket of Voges, leaving survival in the hands of our bowlers yet again.  It was like Lancashire last season all over again as Harris and Murtagh had to battle through a sun drenched final hour and some. And spent most of it surrounded by Notts players.

To be fair they did not look over troubled in spite of plenty of noise from Notts, which was magnified by the quietness in the ground. Not just because there were relatively few people in the ground but because we were transfixed by the countdown of overs, then balls as time ticked away, Even the tannoy announcer stopped giving updates from the West Indies – irrelevant to us.  And with only seven wickets down it should have been possible to survive an hour or so against a tiring attack and on a wicket flattening by the minute. But the fact that is was really eight wickets down made for the extra drama. Though, as the overs went down it became increasingly likely that Malan would come in if needed. Which just stressed the point that there must be some way of being able to substitute a player who sustains a serious injury in a match.  If can’t be fair that a match could be lost because a player can’t bat. It makes it 10 v 11. 

He played that shot a lot

Anyway, that became less of an issue as the Lambeth Lara and the Welsh Wizard looked more and more comfortable apart from one ball which hit Murts on the arm as he fended it off; fortunately nothing too serious.  Notts had some odd field placing: two people on the square boundary when it was patently obvious no one was going to hit any ball in the air – at least deliberately. No one in the ground was moving – especially not the Middlesex balcony, and eventually applause started up every time a ball was defended away or occasionally belted to the boundary. And thankfully there were no wides or no-balls to add any extra balls to be faced. It all had shades of that famous stand with Tufnell and Noffke many years ago against that other East Midlands county. But at least this one had some leeway.

Then finally the last over, and when James Harris edged the fifth ball  to the boundary for a four that brought  us 300 and safety the applause was as if we had won the match. The whole ground on its feet and all feeling a bit breathless as we left.

A fabulous advertisement yet again for County Cricket – a match going to the last possible moment after four days of uninterrupted play.  Why would anyway want to cut down the number of these games.

 PS – I am not following the positive/negative theme (sorry Kev). This is not a day for negatives, and there were plenty of positives – from Mile End onwards and back! But some final positives:

• The battling spirit of Nick Gubbins
• The welcome return of Nick Compton's stickeability
• Adam Voges
• Murts and Harris partnership again 
• Beautiful sunshine