Good Beer and bad beer rub Salt into Middlesex wounds

Rogers and Out gives us a report not for the faint hearted.  We hear about travel, flat beer of the drinking kind, good Beer of the bowling kind, officialdom at its worst. Oh and an old style Middlesex T20 performance. Not pleasant reading but thanks for the effort of getting there and telling us about it.

Our challenge for qualification to the knock out stages of the T20 Blast suffered a setback as we were beaten by seven wickets against Sussex at Hove on Friday evening.
We committed the crime of not batting through our twenty overs, having been dismissed for 146, with fourteen balls of the innings left. Sussex, aided by an unbeaten partnership of 74 between Ross Taylor and Matt Machan, knocked the required runs off in relative comfort with ten balls to spare.
I travelled down to the South coast via the Thameslink from Farringdon to Brighton. My train was very crowded and egress from Brighton station was the usual nightmare, akin to an experience on a sub-continental railway.
I had chosen an establishment called the Prestonville Arms for some refreshment prior to the match, but although the pub was pleasant enough, the beer wasn't so I quickly drank up and headed for the ground.
By this time I had received a text from QPR Chris, who told me that the Sussex mascot Sid the Shark had pulled his Middlesex cap from his head and thrown it to the ground ! Although I had a seat in the Herbalife stand, I joined Chris at the Cromwell Road end for some moral support but then I made what turned out to be a ghastly error. I thought I'd use the facilities just before the start of play, but a somewhat officious steward would not let me back into the section, and despite my protestations that my belongings etc. were in that area, he would not relent so I watched the first innings standing up. In my anger at such small mindedness, I missed the first few overs. However, I can report that we lost the toss and were put in to bat. We got off to our now customary flying start, with Stirlo taking fourteen runs off the second over bowled by Kulasekera.
T20 specialist Tymal Mills was next into the attack for the Sharks, but he was dispatched for six then four by Mala. A no ball followed but then a quick delivery saw our captain sky the ball down leg side and 'keeper Craig Cachopa took the catch behind.
Stirlo was not perturbed by this and continued to score heavily all round the ground, with a series of shots, some of which were authentic, other less so. Upper cuts, edges and aggressive pulls were the order of the day and both Mills and Shahzad, who leaked four consecutive boundaries to the rampaging Irishman, took a pounding.
Stirlo's half century came up in the fifth over but it was Simmo, who had been elevated up the order to number three, who was next to depart in the following over, when a slow yorker from Kulasekera deceived him and he was bowled for six, leaving us on 71/2.
New signing George Bailey was next man in and he played a couple of decent shots in his brief innings, showing a penchant for the reverse sweep. By this time, Sussex were employing slow bowlers at both ends and this arrested our scoring rate. Briggs had Stirlo caught behind for 52, with these runs having come from just 24 balls. The excellent Will Beer was operating from the Sea End and Franco unwisely tried to loft him down the ground into the breeze and he was comfortably taken by Kulasekera. Beer then clean bowled Gorgeous George and we stood at 104/5 in the twelfth over.
Nick Gubbins' double century in the game against Lancashire had earned him a place up the order at number six and both he and Ryan Higgins scampered some useful runs as we looked to keep up the decent run rate.
Gubbo played a lovely late cut off Beer to the boundary from the last ball of the fourteenth over and from our position of 129/5, we looked set to make a challenging total. Alas, it wasn't to be, as Gubbo miscued Briggs to Salt at midwicket and then Higgins was caught and bowled from the very next delivery.
I was surprised that James Fuller came into bat at number ten as he was left to bat with Harry Podmore after the departure of Toby and Nathan. Consequently, it was a bridge too far for us to bat the full allocation and Harry was caught behind off Kulasekera, leaving us all out for an insufficient 146. Had we managed to bat for 20 overs, we could have possibly won the game.
Chris Nash and Luke Wright opened the batting for Sussex and Nash hit two maximums off Fuller in the second over. The second of these sixes was cut over the head of Stirlo at third man. Unfortunately, he had come in off the boundary otherwise he could well have taken the catch. Nash did not remain long, however, as he chipped Toby to the General at mid off in the next over.
Our luck in the field remained poor as from the first ball of Harry Podmore's spell, Phil Salt mistimed an aerial cut shot only for Gubbo to put it down whilst running toward the boundary. Salt, who had put us to the sword in the recent 50 over game, was soon into his stride and played some good shots in company with Wright.
Their partnership had reached 46 when Salt attempted an audacious left handed shot down the ground into the breeze off Sowter and Poddy took a routine catch leaving the Sharks on 70/2 in the eighth over. Harry Podmore produced his best bowling in this competition this season and was rewarded with the wicket of Wright, well taken low down by Simmo for 23. His figures of 1/24 from four overs were a decent effort as was Sowter's return of 1/21. Nathan had bowled three tidy overs from the Sea End when he was inexplicably replaced by Stirlo who went for fifteen runs and with that, any chance of a surprise victory had gone. Machan and Taylor, who had both started off circumspectly, were given impetus by that poor over and never looked back. The hosts cruised to a comfortable win and we were left to reflect on what might have been.

Whilst our form in this format is much improved, there are aspects of our play and tactics that cause concern. It was Sussex's slow bowlers that won them this game and our lightness in that area that lost it. I believe we need Ollie Rayner in the team alongside Nathan Sowter to give us more balance. On the batting front, we seem to go in with all guns blazing throughout the innings, thus losing wickets regularly and coming up with an insufficient total, unless bailed out by the tail enders. Brendon McCullum showed the way at Canterbury and we need to follow his example if we are to succeed in white ball cricket.