Whilst Middlesex's hopes of progressing from the group stages into the knockout phase of this year's Vitality Blast came to an end on Sunday down in Canterbury, when the side suffered a seven wicket defeat to Kent Spitfires, they have two group games remaining this season - the first of which is the London derby, with us facing Surrey Cricket at Lord's tomorrow evening.
Middlesex have named a squad of 13 for the encounter against our London rivals, and we'll be looking to get back to winning ways, following an impressive victory secured last week against Gloucestershire at Merchant Taylors' School in our last home encounter.
Despite the Blast campaign coming to an early finish, the Middlesex side will need no more motivation that a clash against neighbours Surrey to get them up for this one, when they'll be hoping to pull on all the positives that have come out of several recent performances to cause an upset against one of the South Group's form sides.
Surrey come to Lord's in a two-way tussle with Somerset to finish as the South Group winners, and as it stands, they trail the Taunton based outfit by just four points, with a far superior net run rate and crucially with a game in hand.
Middlesex's defeat to the Spitfires dropped the side to eighth in the table, having hopped above Gloucestershire temporarily after last week's win, only for the Bristol based side to reclaim seventh spot with a win over Glamorgan on Sunday.
Aside of Somerset and Surrey, whose places in the knockout phase of the competition have already been confirmed, third and fourth spots in the group remain are still up for grabs, with Hampshire, Kent, Glamorgan, Sussex and Gloucestershire all still in the hunt for qualification to the quarter-finals.
Middlesex will be keen to avoid a repeat of the return fixture at the Oval a fortnight or so ago, when Surrey dominated the game in all departments to secure a 75-run victory in front of their home crowd. When you consider that Surrey had eight players who collectively had accumulated 417 international T20 appearances for their respective countries, compared with Middlesex who had ten players in the side without any international T20 honours, it was a real case of David vs Goliath, and Middlesex will face much of the same tomorrow in another stern test at the Home of Cricket.
With the strength and depth available in the Surrey squad, it's hard to believe that the Kennington based side have won the T20 competition only once, in the very first year of the format, all the way back in 2003, although their record in the format has been impressive - reaching the knockout stages on no fewer than 11 occasions, and reaching Finals Day in nine of those seasons. Their recent form in the Blast, over the last six years, this campaign included, has been even more impressive, as they've failed to reach the knockout stages in just one of those six years.
This year, after a shaky start, which saw Surrey lose their opener to Somerset and then lose their third clash of the campaign to Hampshire, they've only lost one of their next nine games, to Essex at the Oval, and they come into the clash at Lord's in good form, having won each of their last three games.
Middlesex will need to really be on it tomorrow to upset the Surrey charge, and the side can take plenty of encouragement from the way they've performed in several games this term. Against Somerset, they left Taunton kicking themselves that they couldn't secure the win, unable to defend a total of 229. Against Hampshire they were again ruing a missed opportunity, just one run away from chasing down a DLS target of 75 in only six overs, eventually walking away from the Utilita Bowl with a tie. And against both Gloucestershire away and against Hampshire at home, they failed to capitalise on terrific starts and strong powerplays to see both games escape their grasp. Had those four results been reversed, this year's campaign would have a very different look to it, and we'd be up there fighting for qualification.
Tomorrow's London derby will be played out in front of the live Sky Cricket cameras, with the game being shown on Sky Cricket +, and the atmosphere should be absolutely rocking, with by far the largest crowd of the season expected at Lord's, with advance ticket sales for the London derby surpassing all previous matches by a hefty margin.
Surrey's campaign with the bat has been spearheaded with runs from both Will Jacks and Jason Roy. Jack's tally of 352 runs and Roy's 338 see them sat in the top twenty run-scorers in the competition to date, across both divisions. Sam Curran's total of 274 runs, Dom Sibley's 227 and Laurie Evans' 201 come next.
There's not too much between the two sides' in the run-scoring department, with Stephen Eskinazi leading the way for the Seaxes and indeed for both sides on 366 runs. Kane Williamson's 317 runs come next, with Ben Geddes' 244 and Max Holden's 216 following him.
With the ball, Sam Curran, Mitch Santner and Chris Jordan have done most of the damage for Surrey, with Curran leading the way with 17 wickets. Santner and Jordan are matched on 14 wickets, whilst Reece Topley's 10 wickets see him next in the visitors' wicket-taking column.
For Middlesex it's Tom Helm who has led the way with 19 wickets, which sees him sat as the countries eighth highest wicket taker in the format. Luke Hollman's 13 comes next, with both Zafar Gohar and Noah Cornwell's 11 wickets apiece next in line.
Whilst the leading performances with both bat and ball have the sides relatively evenly matched, Surrey's ability to take control of games and seize the moment has got them to where they are in the group, calling on all the experience within their squad. Tomorrow at the Home of Cricket it will need to be Middlesex who grab the momentum and take control if we are to finish this season's Blast campaign at home with a win to back up the win we secured last time out at Lord's when we beat Essex by just one run. That display featured all the qualities that will be needed tomorrow, so a repeat performance will be just what the home crowd are looking for with London pride at stake!
The Middlesex fourteen-man squad for tomorrow's London derby clash is as follows:
If you're not able to make it to Lord's tomorrow, you'll be able to watch the game live on Sky Sports +, or you can tune into Middlesex's live stream of the game, being broadcast from Lord's, available to watch on the Club's website in the Match Centre, or direct on the Club's YouTube channel.
Middlesex Men
Surrey Men
