2nd XI Championship: Sussex v Middlesex - Match Report

• 

  21 August 2012

  With a couple of established players away to other counties on loan, and regulars Adam Rossington and Ravi Patel being selected for the 1^st XI, Middlesex fielded a very young and inexperienced looking side for their last Championship game of the season.

  It was therefore important that the senior players present stepped up to the plate and made an impression on the game. First chance to do that came to the batters after we managed the rare feat of winning a toss. On a very good looking track we lost Josh Davey to the third ball of the day bringing in Adam London. What followed was, in any class of cricket, a superb example of building an innings and taking the match by the scruff of its neck. In just over 5 ¼ hours at the crease Adam London scored a wonderful 196 runs coming from shots of power, subtlety and chanceless superiority, setting up Middlesex for what would be a very exciting last session win after 3 hard days of cricket. Ryan Higgins, again showing maturity and class beyond his years, with a very impressive half century, as did eventual man of the match winner Tom Smith.

  Now I know you must be thinking for London not to get MOTM must be some kind of travesty. However after Sussex managed to get to within 80 runs of our 398 1^st innings total, it meant that to win the game our bowlers would need to produce something special in the 60 overs available in the 2^nd Sussex innings to produce a win. Step forward the skipper, Tom Smith. Bowling twenty overs from the Church end he ended up with figures of 20-2-62-7 with the not inconsiderable help of new bow Rashid Mullahzadah who took 4 very accomplished catches in the deep to finally dismiss the home side 50 runs short of their target with half a dozen overs left in the day.

  This result leaves us finishing 4^th in our Championship division, just 5 points off first place. Not a bad season at all.

  ----------------------------

  Day 3: Middlesex 247-9d (Davey 65, Selvakumar 42, Smith 39*); Sussex 270 (Smith 7-62, Podmore 3-62)

  Day 2: Sussex 315 (Podmore 4-75, Sandhu 3-60, Mullahzadah 1-46, Smith 1-47, Davey 1-62); Middlesex 139-4 (Davey 48* & Selvakumar 29*)

  Day 1: Middlesex 392 (London 196, Higgins 52 & Smith 51); Sussex 50-3

  -----------------------

  Middlesex CCC are pleased to announce the following 12-man team to play against Sussex in a 3-day 2nd XI Championship match at Horsham CC starting today, Tuesday 21 August:

  Nick Gubbins
  Josh Davey
  Adam London
  Ryan Higgins
  Shaan Khan
  Nish Selvakumar (wk)
  Chris Wakefield
  Ollie Wilkin
  Tom Smith (captain)
  Gurjit Sandhu
  Harry Podmore
  Rashid Mullahzadah

  Live Scores can be found by CLICKING HERE.

  BACK TO ARTICLES