Middlesex First Team Coach, Richard Johnson, has named a squad of fourteen for our next Vitality Blast clash of the season, when we’ll take on Somerset in Taunton tomorrow.
This clash is the first of two back-to-back away matches in the Blast, with the squad travelling to Southampton after tomorrow’s clash, where they’ll face Hampshire on Friday night.
Johnson has been forced into making a couple of changes to the squad that was named for the Essex clash last Sunday, when we secured a comprehensive six-wicket win in Chelmsford, with Josh Little missing from the group, as he initially joined up with Ireland for their forthcoming T20I series starting tomorrow, however pulled up in training yesterday with a niggle, so has returned to England but remains unavailable for selection by Middlesex.
Whilst the absence of Ireland overseas paceman Little is a blow, given how well he’s settled into the side, the group are buoyed by the return of Max Holden, who returns to Middlesex after representing the England Lions, when he accounted for himself brilliantly on the international stage.
The return of Holden, one of the Club’s most consistent T20 performers in recent seasons, will add some important firepower to the top of the Middlesex order.
We had into tomorrow’s clash on six points, sat seventh in the South Group, knowing that victory against either Somerset or Hampshire on Friday will put us right back in the mix at the right end of the table, so there’s a huge amount riding on both matches.
It’s hard to imagine two more touch back-to-back matches however, especially away, with tomorrow’s opponents Somerset still the only unbeaten side in the South Group, with a 100% winning record to date.
After two defeats in the opening two games, Middlesex, under the leadership of Stephen Eskinazi, bounced back with a really impressive performance with the ball against Kent Spitfires at Lord’s last week, only for rain to cancel out any chance they would have of chasing down a gettable target, before they then got the better of Essex last time out, in a performance that will give the side plenty of confidence going into these two away clashes.
A skipper’s knock from Eskinazi led the way in the win against Essex on Sunday, but he was well supported in an opening partnership of 97 with Kane Williamson, and by a brutal innings from Ben Geddes, who smashed 34 from just 12 deliveries to get Middlesex over the line. With the ball, Tom Helm continued his fine start to this year’s campaign, picking up another four wickets, in what was a really solid performance from the Middlesex side in the field.
Tomorrow, against Somerset, we’ll need to repeat all those skills to the maximum if we’re to come away with a win, as the Taunton based outfit have started this year’s campaign brilliantly, winning each of their three opening encounters impressively.
They opened with a strong five wicket win against Surrey – inspired by a great bowling performance to restrict Surrey to just 146 in their 20 overs. They followed this up by then beating Essex heavily by eight wickets – again winning the game with the ball, dismissing Essex for just 148, before then restricting Sussex to 166 for 8 in their 20 overs in their last encounter – chasing them down for the loss of just three wickets with time to spare.
Leading the way for Somerset with the ball are both Matt Henry and Riley Meredith, with the seamers each picking up seven wickets to date, with Ben Green and the experienced Lewis Gregory following close behind on five apiece.
Interestingly, every wicket taken by Somerset in their three games to date have fallen to pace, with only four overs of the 59.1 overs they’ve bowled coming from the spinners, with Lewis Goldsworthy bowling them all.
Middlesex’s wickets have been shared around among the group, although Tom Helm sits proudly as the South Group’s leading wicket-taker, with ten wickets to his name! Spin has accounted for ten of Middlesex’s wickets, with Luke Hollman leading the way with six and Zafar Gohar close behind him on four.
With the bat, opener Will Smeed leads the run-scoring for Somerset, with 124 runs to his name from his three matches played, with top-order batter Tom Kohler-Cadmore close behind him on 102.
For Middlesex, Eskinazi’s 120 runs put him at the top of the pile in these early stages, with Geddes coming next on 92 runs.
With Middlesex looking to build on their good recent performances and Somerset looking to maintain their terrific start to the season, tomorrow’s clash promises to be a thriller.
You can watch the game live on a live stream being broadcast by our hosts Somerset, which will be available to watch on the Middlesex website in the match centre.
Middlesex have named the following fourteen-man squad for tomorrow’s clash in Taunton:
Somerset Men
Middlesex Men
