No home comforts at Lord's

Buy this photo

An indifferent day at Lord’s started with grey skies and rain. But knowing it doesn’t take long to dry out we needed to be prepared to start at any time.

All our preparation was done in the indoor school at Lord’s - indoor football was interesting seeing as the usual theatrical divers weren’t able to try and fool the ref. Even though Luke is generally easily fooled.

With this being a must win game we needed a good start. We were batting first with Hughes getting us off to the great start we were after.

Backed up by Shah and Dexter, he played some incredible shots and was finally out for 119 off 112 balls. His penultimate innings for Middlesex would linger well in the member’s minds.

With his unorthodox approach, which has been well documented, entwined with an abnormally simplistic approach, makes Hughes a player I am sure will go on to be a ‘great’ at international level.

As many people say, ’check the stats'. That is all you have to do with Phillip and we will all be disappointed to see him go. However, the depth of batting talent at Middlesex will be hungry and keen to fill Hughesy’s shoes and all are capable of doing so.

Posting 341, our highest ever list A score, was a huge positive. It gave our bowlers confidence to try and hit our areas hard.

However, Somerset came hard at us, Kieswetter and Trescothick showing why they are probably the most destructive partnership in one-day cricket.

Celebrating with Ben Scott who took a superb catch against Somerset - unfortunately it was not enough

Buy this photo

I bowled too loosely from the Nursery End, much to my frustration. Looking back on it, I offered too much width to batsmen who thrive on it. Knowing you need early wickets can be very misleading because often if you go searching for wickets you will not get them.

If you bowl tight and bowl dots then you will get them. I returned at the Pavilion End with more control and picked up two wickets, Ben Scott taking a very good, if overdramatic, catch.

As we took wickets, the Duckworth-Lewis par score rose. As the rain fell and we left the field, we were three runs up.

I was four balls into an over. But once again, being Lord’s, the outfield dried quickly and we had until 8.15pm to start again. Overs were lost and a revised target of 290 from 41 was set.

We always backed ourselves but with four overs of Power-play left we needed to take wickets. I took one more but it was too little too late.

Somerset cruised past and our chances of qualifying for the quarter finals slimmed massively. Everything is now out of our hands. We need to beat Warwickshire to give ourselves the best chance.