A Surrey State Of Affairs

JW has the difficult job of describing another 20/20 humiliating defeat. It makes depressing reading but at least we have some positives. 

 My evening started by catching the 5:08pm Chiltern Railways service from Rickmansworth to Marylebone, which was noticeably not as crowded compared to when I use the service to travel to Twenty20 matches at Lord’s. I then got the Bakerloo line to Oxford Circus and the Victoria line to Vauxhall. I arrived in my seat in the front row of block 18 of the OCS stand at about 6:15pm having purchased my ticket in February for £19 instead of £24 thanks to an offer on Sky Tickets’ website. I usually sit in the alcohol-free area for this fixture due to the reduced likelihood of spectators going back and forth to the bar or toilet, but I had to sit in this area due to no other area being offered on the website. Thankfully, the fact I was in the front row meant my experience wasn’t bad, although it meant I didn’t have an elevated view of the action.

As I neither buy scorecards nor have internet access at matches and could not clearly hear the announcements (not that I think it was ever announced after I had arrived), I was unsure of the line-ups. And as Middlesex were batting first after winning the toss, I would have to wait to see which batsmen step from the dug-out to learn our line-up. I eventually learned that we had made three changes from the previous night’s match v Sussex at Lord’s, with Nick Gubbins, Neil Dexter and Gurjit Sandhu replacing Nick Compton, James Franklin and Mitch McClenaghan, which theoretically weakened the side, so I didn’t expect an improved performance.

Admittedly, Surrey were unable to field their strongest possible side, as they were without Stuart Meaker, Chris Tremlett, Matthew Dunn, Steven Davies and Moises Henriques for various reasons, although they were strengthened by the absence of Jade Dernbach. The only action of note in the first three overs of our innings was a couple of boundaries to take us to 15-0. However, Sam Curran replaced brother Tom from the Pavilion end, and with his first ball he caused Paul Stirling to sky the ball into the air and he was caught by Zafar Ansari at silly mid-off for 7. A couple more boundaries followed in the remaining overs of the Powerplay, which we ended on 37-1. It was beginning to seem like it would be a repeat of the Sussex match, with us dealing mainly in ones, with the very occasional two or boundary. Dawid Malan hit the first six of the match 10 rows to my left off Gareth Batty off the fourth ball of the seventh over, but this later proved to be the final boundary of our innings. Gubbins tried to repeat Malan’s six off the first ball of Batty’s next over, but could only pick out James Burke at deep square leg and was out for 14.

This meant that Eoin Morgan was at the crease with Dawid Malan in what I hoped would be a partnership which increased the run rate. However, Morgan scratched around for 8 off 11 before being bowled by Ansari. Maybe John Simpson will perform his usual rescuing job. However, he was out for 1, bowled by Batty. Once Malan was caught by Jason Roy off Ansari for 40 to leave us 79-5, I lost hope of us posting a challenging total, and had to console myself that at least it meant I would not have to wait long to find out our line-up. It became clear that Ryan Higgins was once again not in the side for the 9th time in 10 Twenty20 matches despite an impressive 2014 campaign. However, it looks likely his time to return to our side really has come, as the club will probably rest players for our remaining matches to keep them fit for the County Championship, and Stirling and Andrew Balbirnie are unlikely to play again in this competition this season due to Ireland commitments. Three of our four remaining wickets were bowled, which meant that five wickets had fallen that way, and we finished on 105-9. As I said, for the second night running, nearly every ball seemed to go for either a dot or a single, which is nowhere near good enough. Had there not been six wides, our total wouldn't have reached three figures.

Half-time entertainment came by way of a beer snake being constructed a few rows behind me, and a steward telling the person responsible for it to ‘read their ticket’. Admittedly, I can’t find anything about beer snakes on the ticket, although I can understand it not being allowed.

Surrey’s reply started slowly, with only 3 coming off the first 1.4 overs, but fours off the final two balls of the over proved the springboard to them scoring 10 off each of the 2nd, 3rd and 4th overs, and the rate required was down to 4.56. Middlesex soon had a couple of events to cheer, as Harry Podmore dismissed pinch-hitter Tom Curran with the final ball of the fifth over and Gurjit Sandhu took out Roy’s middle stump three balls later, but that was as good as it got, as Kumar Sangakkara and Gary Wilson edged them near to the finish line.

With 14 required in the final 7 overs, Morgan did what he did when defeat was imminent in our two previous matches and brought on Stirling to bowl, although it required an over from Malan to conclude the match.

Positives: The performances of Malan and Sandhu. My view not being obstructed. Getting home quickly.

Negatives: It looks like our Twenty20 performances are getting worse despite everyone hoping they get better. The scoreboard did not give much information with regards to who took each catch or what the bowling figures were. Realising that we will probably be unable to select Stirling for our remaining Twenty20 matches, something which isn't going to help our performances.