The mid-season return of the Rothesay County Championship tomorrow marks the start of a new era for Middlesex Cricket, as the four-day match against Northamptonshire sees Dane Vilas take the reins as the Club’s Interim Men’s First Team Coach for the very first time.
Vilas was named on Thursday as the interim successor to Richard Johnson, and he takes charge of the side tomorrow until the end of the season. He’s spent time with the squad over the last couple of days, having been at Lord’s on Thursday to witness the win against Essex, and again at the Oval last night as we played Surrey, and he’ll be relishing the opportunity to get into the thick of the action from tomorrow up at Northampton.
A squad of fourteen has been named for the encounter at the County Ground and Middlesex will be looking to get back to winning ways to get their four-day campaign back on track.
Toby Roland-Jones will resume his position as red-ball Captain, having sat out of the Vitality Blast over the last three weeks, and he’ll be freshened up for the rest and firing on all cylinders. He’s joined in the pace bowling ranks by a resurgent and fit Tom Helm, Noah Cornwell, Naavya Sharma and Ryan Higgins, whilst spin options come from a trio of Zafar Gohar, Luke Hollman and Josh De Caires.
Dane Paterson, who picked up 11 wickets in the five matches he played prior to the Vitality Blast, has now left the Club and returned to South Africa, although with Tom Helm now fully fit and in great rhythm, there’s a ready-made replacement to slot right in.
The batting ranks contains plenty of options in Sam Robson, Max Holden, Josh de Caires, Leus du Plooy, Ben Geddes, Stephen Eskinazi, Joe Cracknell, Higgins and Hollman, and with De Caires relentlessly piling on the runs in recent weeks in the Second Eleven, he’ll be hoping that he’s done enough to warrant a start.
The omission of Jack Davies from the squad will see Joe Cracknell take responsibility behind the stumps, and like De Caires, he’s also been heavily in the runs in the Second Eleven in recent weeks too.
Kane Williamson, who has been in action in each of Middlesex’s eight Blast matches to this point, takes a break for the next two Championship games, although will be available for the resumption of the Blast and for Middlesex’s final five Championship games.
It’s a squad of fourteen that gives Vilas plenty of options, with both bat and ball in all disciplines, and his starting eleven will no doubt be heavily influenced by the surface they’ll find upon arriving in Northampton – but he looks to have all bases nicely covered for all eventualities!
The side currently lie in sixth place in the Division Two table at the halfway stage of the campaign, with seven matches remaining, with our aspirations of achieving promotion into the top-flight of the County Championship at the end of the season realistically relying on us securing at least four wins from the remaining seven games.
Tomorrow’s trip to Northampton presents the first of those opportunities, with our opponents sitting just one place above us and only two points in the ascendancy.
The two promotion spots are currently filled by Leicestershire at the top, who are the runaway leaders in Division Two, with five wins to their name and 139 points already on the board, whilst Derbyshire sit in second spot, some 31 points behind on 108, having won two and drawn five of their seven matches to this point.
The gap from Derbyshire in second to Middlesex in sixth currently sits at 38 points, which is by no means insurmountable, especially if Vilas can inspire a turnaround in form that sees the side go on a winning run of form.
The fly in the ointment is that the next four rounds of matches will be played with the Kookaburra ball, and if anything can be read into last year’s trial of the Kookaburra, getting positive results with it could prove somewhat more challenging.
The ball was first trialled last year in four rounds of matches, generating mixed opinion and much debate as to the success or failure of that trial. In the main, the batters prospered, whilst the bowlers toiled away with a ball that offered far less swing and seam than the Dukes ball which is used in the other ten rounds of the season. In short, this led to a high volume of drawn matches, which is the last thing Middlesex need over the next four games.
One positive to come out of the trial last year was that the lack of assistance for the seamers led to far more overs of spin being bowled, and with Middlesex now benefitting from the experience and quality of Zafar Gohar in the side, with support from both Hollman and De Caires also at Vilas’ disposal, this could well prove to be advantageous and play a large part in the new coaches' selection choices.
With neither side competing in red-ball action over the last three to four weeks, there’s no recent form to go on, although whichever side handles the return to the longer format better will be the side who’ll come out on top. It’s time for the batters to put the flamboyant scoops, the ramps, the helicopter shots and the switch hits back in the cupboard for a couple of weeks, and get back to shouldering arms and embracing the leave for a while!
Prior to the Blast, Northamptonshire’s batting in the Championship was led from the front by left-hander Saif Zaib, who is out front with 604 runs to his name at an average of 50.33. Behind him are Luke Procter, with 451 at 37.58, Lewis McManus with 348 at 31.63 and James Sales with 338 at 28.16, with no other Northants batters passing 300 runs at the half-way stage of the competition.
For Middlesex, the batting stats match up extremely closely to Northamptonshire's, with Max Holden leading the way for the Seaxes, with 663 runs to his name at an average of 47.35. Following Holden are Ben Geddes with 418 at 32.15, Jack Davies 355 at 29.58 and Leus du Plooy with 302 at 27.45.
With the ball, Northamptonshire’s leading wicket-taker to this point has been Calvin Harrison, with the leg-spinner picking up 21 wickets, whilst Harry Conway follows closely with 20. Behind them are Ben Sanderson with 15, with both Liam Guthrie and Justin Broad on 14 apiece.
For Middlesex, skipper Roland-Jones has led the way, with 26 wickets to his name already, and he’s been well supported by Zafar Gohar, with 21. Behind them comes Ryan Higgins with 18, with Henry Brookes and Dane Paterson on 11.
The return of a fit Helm for Middlesex will be crucial for the remaining seven games this season, and he’ll be hoping he can quickly climb up that ladder and get in amongst the wickets.
Middlesex had the better of the two encounters between the two sides last season, winning the game at Merchant Taylors’ School by eight wickets and drawing the game at the County Ground in Northampton.
The game at the County Ground was the second game of the first Kookaburra ball trial last season, and it was a game when the batters really cashed in! Emilio Gay piled on a massive 261 in the Northants innings, eventually run out, with James Sales also tonning up, hitting an unbeaten 113 as Northants amassed a huge first innings total of 552 for 6 declared.
In reply, a century for Nathan Fernandes (103), an unbeaten double-century for Max Holden (211*) and a big unbeaten hundred from Leus du Plooy (196*) saw the game fade into an inevitable draw, as Middlesex matched Northants total with an equally impressive 553 for 2.
Whether the return of the Kookaburra ball this year sees more of the same dominance of bat over ball will all become clear tomorrow, although with both sides needing to secure a positive result to push up the table, one can be optimistic that there will be more intent to produce a result this week from both sides.
Middlesex have named the following fourteen-man squad for the game in Northampton:
Northamptonshire Men
Middlesex Men
