Tomorrow Belongs To M(iddl)e

Delivers the goods again

By Ged
August 28 2009

Ged reports distractedly on Day One of this Middlesex game v Glos. He missed vital bits of it but still somehow manages to pull together something vaguely coherent for you to read. At least, Ged thinks it's coherent. He doesn't have to read it, does he? Or even edit it? He just brain dumps on MTWD as fast as he can. Then on to the next thing leaving literary carnage in his wake.

MORNING SESSION - NOT

It was one of those days for me.  I had hoped to get to attend the whole day.  And as no-one had volunteered for reporting the first day, even though I was planning to work at Lord’s, I thought I’d be able to make a decent fist of it.

As it turned out, lots of urgent work came in late afternoon and overnight Wednesday, including an urgent conference call (blah blah) so the upshot was I got to Lord’s to see the last 9 or 10 balls of the morning.

I went up to the Sun Deck and made conversation with a knowledgeable looking chap who told me that Middlesex won the toss, elected to bat and batted very solidly against disciplined and at times threatening new ball bowling.  Nick Compton in particular looked to have weathered the new ball when he went for a big shot off Hamish Marshall’s first delivery, presumably (and falsely) expecting Marshall’s medium pace to be some relief.  Robson and London batted very carefully from then until lunch.  78/1 at lunch.

Had I made up the morning bit of the report, I’d have probably said almost exactly the same thing, but was grateful to the kind gentleman for the update.

AFTERNOON SESSION

Robson and London looked composed at the crease; Robson batting with a bit more purpose than London at that stage, being the more experienced batsman of the two.  I hope we are all remembering how very inexperienced these young players are.  And how effective Gloucestershire’s seam attack has been this season.   Lewis had a huge shout for LBW turned down against London and I would describe the minute or so Lewis spent posturing about it afterwards as dissent.  In fact, he seemed in a thoroughly bad mood all afternoon – I soon relocated to the sunshine of the Mound Stand and Lewis seemed to be bickering with someone in the crowd when he was fielding down there.

It was steady progress against the seamers – only when Dawson came on did our young batsmen really open up; they made Dawson look well below the required standard – let’s not forget that he was the great England hopeful not all that long ago.  Both youngsters played some excellent shots against the spin and also against the pace bowling.

I was paged and nipped out for an urgent business call and missed the going of Robson, so can only say that it was against the run of play, although Kirby did look the most threatening of the pace men at the time.

Dawid Malan helped to up the tempo of the innings; but by this time London also was batting with more confidence and fluency.  It seemed to move along very nicely and soon 200/2 was on the board and it was tea. 

EVENING SESSION

I always work on the basis that if the batting side gets its first bonus point before the bowling side gets its first bowling point, the batting side is well on top.  Similarly, if the bowling side gets its second  bowling point before the batting side gets its second batting point, then the bowling side is well on top,

At tea I reflected that Middlesex was well on top at 200/2, but things went somewhat awry soon after tea. I am all for the forcing of the pace of the game at this stage; the old ball, some part time bowling and a general feeling of “we’re on top, let’s make the most of it”.   Indeed, Malan and London seemed to be doing all that extremely well, but then against the run of play London just seemed completely to misread an ordinary-looking delivery from Marshall and his stumps were scattered. 

Soon after, Malan mistimed one to point and we were four down with two men on blob at the crease.   Scotty didn’t last long either, so at 244-5 it looked quite possible that Gloucester would get their second bonus point before us.

However, Dexter looked in good touch from the off and soon Gareth Berg also got started.  They cruised through 250 taking advantage of the extra pace of the new ball.  But that extra pace comes with the price of a bit of extra seam nibble and soon Berg nibbled one through to Adshead.

By this time I had relocated to the Upper Compo, strategically following the sun and wending my way round to the Upper Mound for the evening do. 

Shaggy and Dexter settled the nerves with some excellent shots (a couple of Dexter’s straight drives  off Lewis were just dreamy and will have worsened Lewis’s already poor mood.)  Shaggy also played some very fine shots.  A few alarms – there usually are with the new ball, but basically that partnership looked like holding the fort overnight and so they did.

307/6 overnight – with that inexperienced batting line up you’d have bought that first thing in the morning, although at 200/2 you might have got greedy and asked for a little more.  Matche poised – advantage (if any) to Middlesex.

At the evening do, which was very well organized and extremely pleasant, I reflected on the achievements of that batch of very young, inexperienced but talented batsmen – Robson, London, Malan – even Nick Compton isn’t that experienced.  Seeing all of those fellows there in a group, I imagined them forming a chorus line and belting “Tomorrow Belongs To Me” at full volume, but soon expunged that thought from my mind. 

Joking apart, though, as a dreadful season works through its final few chapters, I think the future really does look bright for Middlesex.  The key is to keep this talented troupe together and grow most of them from their current level into a force to be reckoned with.  I think it can be done.  Tomorrow belongs to Middlesex.

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