Tomorrow, Middlesex make a welcome return to red-ball action, when we host Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylors' School over the coming four days.
Attention turns to the Rothesay County Championship, having now completed our Vitality Blast campaign, which ended in defeat to Glamorgan on Friday night in Cardiff and an exit from the competition in the group stages.
We have named a squad of 14 for this week's Championship encounter, with the side being led by Leus du Plooy, who was recently appointed as the Club's four-day Captain, taking over from Toby Roland-Jones, who is also named in the squad and will spearhead the pace bowling attack.
Young Jamie Feldman gets his first call-up into a County Championship squad, having only been signed professionally on rookie terms at the end of last week. The young right-arm seamer will be hoping to get his chance to impress again, having made a promising start to life in the pro ranks on his debut in Cardiff last Friday, when he picked up two Glamorgan wickets on his first appearance for the Club's first eleven.
The batting ranks are boosted by the inclusion of New Zealand overseas star, Kane Williamson, who stands to make his first-class debut for the Club, with the Black Caps legend being available for this and Middlesex's remaining four Championship matches this season. His additional is a massive boost for Middlesex going into this critical phase of the season.
A return to the four-day format will give the side a real lift after a disappointing T20 campaign, and will give them the opportunity to build on that emphatic victory we secured against previously unbeaten Leicestershire in our last County Championship outing.
That victory saw us close the gap on the sides above us and reduce the arrears to Derbyshire in second place to just 27 points. With five games in the competition remaining, it's all to play for in the latter stages of the campaign.
Whilst we currently sit in eighth place in Division Two, there are five sides bunched above us within touching distance, and a win this week at Merchant Taylors' School will see us climb in amongst them and put ourselves in a wonderful position to mount a promotion push in the final month of the season.
Despite their first loss of the season to Middlesex last time out, Leicestershire remain the favourites for promotion, currently sitting in first place on 157 points and seemingly out of touch at this stage. Behind them however, Derbyshire sit on 126, Glamorgan on 124, Gloucestershire on 111, Northamptonshire on 108 and Lancashire on 102, with Middlesex coming next on 99, 10 points clear of Kent on 89 at the foot of the table.
With so much to play for, this week's encounter promises to be a gripping content, and Middlesex will be looking to reverse the result up at the County Ground in Northampton of a month ago.
Despite matching Northamptonshire for large parts of that clash at Wantage Road and getting ourselves into a position to push for victory on the final day, a bold and positive declaration by Middlesex on the final day of the game, in an attempt to force the result and chase the win backfired, as Northamptonshire's batters accepted the proverbial dangled carrot and successfully chased down the target set for them by Middlesex, for the loss of six wickets. Middlesex were left ruing a number of missed chances in the field, which would have made all the difference between winning and losing the game.
The manner in which they bounced back from that upset however was hugely impressive, as against Leicestershire, who had gone unbeaten in their previous eight Championship matches, Middlesex dominated the game from the outset, as a fine hundred from opener Sam Robson (133), a maiden first-class hundred from Ben Geddes (137), combined with half-centuries from Josh De Caires (76) and Leus du Plooy (56) saw us post a first innings total of 534.
With the work done with the bat, the bowlers then took control, dismissing Leicestershire for just 205 in their first innings, and 202 in their second, to secure a comprehensive and chastening result, winning by an innings and 127 runs! Match figures of 6 for 84 for young seamer Naavya Sharma, 5 for 66 for the experienced Tom Helm and 4 for 85 for young Noah Cornwell did the majority of the damage in what was a fine all round performance from Middlesex.
Middlesex can head into this week's encounter knowing that anything like the performance of our last outing will give us every chance of securing the result we need to climb the table and start to mount a real challenge for promotion.
Middlesex's 14-man squad for this week's game is as follows:
General Admission Tickets and Members' Guest Tickets can still be purchased for this match - available online by clicking HERE
If you're not heading to Northwood to watch the action, then you can tune into the Club's live stream of the match, available to watch in the Match Centre on the Club's website or direct on the Club's YouTube channel
Middlesex Men
Northamptonshire Men
