REPORT AND OPEN LETTER TO TEAM AND FANS

HAMPSHIRE V MIDDLESEX MATCH SUMMARY

 

REPORT AND OPEN LETTER TO THE TEAM AND TO THE FANS

 

Ged Ladd reviews the match and next steps for the team.� This report is in a sense an open letter to the team and to the fans.� It is positive, possibly provocative to some, but certainly well intended to all.� Ged tries to draw some helpful lessons and conclusions, but is main conclusion is DO NOT DESPAIR.� Ged believes that the greatest risk to the teams chances at this juncture is demoralisation, not an inherent problem with the team.

 

Summary and Match Overview

 

The second innings of this match was a much more impressive affair for Middlesex.� 344 is a very respectable second innings score at the Rose Bowl.� Disappointing to only add a further 139 runs for 7 wickets Day 3, but the very best teams in the world regularly fold for less than that when Warne takes 7fers.� The die was cast in the first dig, from which there was very little chance of escape.

 

What to do at the toss?

 

Before this match, Ben Hutton must have wished for better luck at the toss, having lost three on the trot before this game.� By lunch on Wednesday, he must have wished he�d lost the toss.� At least if you are inserted you can blame the track for a miserable first dig.� But was the track that awful.� So hard for us absentees to tell � so easy for people to spout off about it on the message board.

 

Admit it, folks, at 50/1 we weren�t bemoaning Ben�s poor judgement at the toss.� Nor were we criticising the batsmen (Straussy excepted, but then he redeemed himself second dig so that�s all right).� Nor was anyone questioning players� commitment.

 

The Rose Bowl is notoriously unpredictable and thus difficult to judge at the toss.� Many teams have come a cropper judging it wrong, Hampshire included.� Test match status?� Don�t make me laugh.

 

Lesson: If in doubt at the toss, the default option is to elect to bat.� Do we want the team to abandon that tried and tested adage? � do we heck.

 

Middlesex first dig

 

Was it the pitch?� Was it ill-judged shots?� Was it a string of mishaps all happening within a short space of time?� Will the team benefit from endless machinations of this kind?

 

Every team has the occasional shocker with the bat.� If it becomes a habit, the team habitually loses matches.� There is no reason to assume that this will become a habit for Middlesex.�

 

Individual players might learn from the experience, be it shot selection, training their temperament for collapse circumstances or whatever.� Some players might have little to learn from that innings.� Most importantly, the team must try and put the matter behind them; if we get into the mindset of a collapse-prone team we shall become a collapse-prone team.�

 

Lesson: Middlesex has been a good batting side for some time and should continue to be such.� The players have every reason to believe in themselves as a batting side.

 

 

Hampshire First Dig

 

I suspect we didn�t bowl well enough on the first day of the match.� Perhaps morale had been hit.� Perhaps the bowlers got frustrated when they had little luck.� This is not the first time in history that bowlers have struggled to get it right after the batsmen have failed to make a passable score.� Had we scored 200+, perhaps the bowlers attitude and the rub of the green would have gone better.� Hard to say.

 

 

Middlesex Second Dig

 

Much better effort.� It is a shame so many players seemed to get set and then got out.� Perhaps that is the nature of the pitch.� Perhaps that is the nature of playing Warne � you�re just never in.� Straussy�s innings in that regard is excellent news for England, both in terms of preparation for the forthcoming summer but (perhaps more importantly) as part of the long phony war leading up to the Ashes.� Straussy has proved yet again that he can make good hundreds even when Warne is bowling.

 

Lesson: �Can we have our boy back please� whenever we play matches in which Warne is bowling?

 

Looking Forward With Facts, Not Bile

 

I know I shall be panned by some of the nay-sayers on the board for saying this, but I really don�t think this match should be seen as a bell-weather for the season.� We were missing our key players.� Just study these stats for a moment.

 

We lacked both of our highest averaging batsmen from last season, Shah and Joyce.� Shah scored 1650 runs at 63 and Joyce scored 1668 runs at an average of 62.�� Between the two of them, they scored 37% of all the CC runs Middlesex scored in the 2005 season.

 

We also lacked our two highest averaging bowlers, Richardson and Styris.� Richardson took 57 wickets at 25, Styris took 31 wickets at under 24.� Those 88 wickets were just under 40% of all the wickets Middlesex took in the 2005 season.

 

I challenge the reader to argue that there is any team out there that could deplete its forces so much and beat a full strength opponent.�

 

Take Pothas, Crawley, Warne and Udal out of the Hampshire side, restore the four above mentioned to ours and what do you think might have happened.

 

I understand the counter argument � we are supposed to have strength in depth this year blah blah, but that level of depletion, especially when the opposition is full strength, is an important factor.� Yes, we shouldn�t have been caned so badly � perhaps we even could have won this match if we had applied ourselves differently.� But if a massively depleted Middlesex ought to compete away from home against a full strength Hants, that sounds like Middlesex is a strong squad that underperformed, not a weak squad.

 

Lesson: let�s try not to be without quite so many of our better players all at once

 

Nil Desperandum � DO NOT DESPAIR

 

In my view, the team can and should bounce back from this defeat quickly.� Durham is also a difficult place to visit but our squad should be strengthened greatly and the opposition (in my view) is not of the same quality.

 

In my opinion, the greatest risk to the teams chances at this juncture is demoralisation, not an inherent problem with the team per se.�

 

Despite the spleen-venting by several nay-sayers on the Board, I believe that the vast majority of Middlesex fans are rooting for the team and still believe in the team for this season.

 

I believe the team will finish the season in the top 5 of the CC and well away from the relegation zone.� I also believe that we�ll be competing for silver, possibly even winning it, in one of the one-day competitions.� Remember who said it during a rather dark hour.

 

So team � go prove me right.

 

And fans � get behind your team.