A bright start to our Trophy campaign

Monday 21 April 2008 | Steve Finn

On a cold, dreary day at The Brit Oval, the ground was lit up by two of the more different sets of one-day colours. Pink and Blue played Gold and Brown.

Thankfully, the cricket did not disappoint. A career best innings of 163 from Andrew Strauss gave impetus to our innings, with great support from Owais Shah and Ed Joyce, took us through to 315 from our 50 overs, without me having to bat.

With 315 on the board, bowling looked a daunting task. However, it was clear there was a length to bowl on this wicket; all we had to do was hit it consistently.

I opened the bowling with Tim Murtagh and it was apparent from the start that Newman and Benning were in bullish moods. Pulling anything short of a length and playing some great shots on the up through the covers.

This set up a great finale to an action-packed opening game. I was slightly disappointed with the way I bowled with the new ball; my lengths were too varied for this form of cricket.

However, at the death, I felt I bowled a lot better, as we restricted them to 248 all out, chasing a revised target of 307 from 46 overs. Danny Evans and Gareth Berg, making their list A debuts, shared seven wickets, both bowling excellently in the middle of the innings.

A great start for Middlesex in the Friends Provident Trophy against our rivals from across the river. Hopefully we can carry this momentum in to next week’s game with Kent at Lord’s.

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