Middlesex CCC Match Preview - 28/04/2022

The season so far:

Both teams drew their opening match of the season, with Middlesex having a rest week subsequently while the Running Foxes drew at Durham.  Last week, despite a rearguard action on day four, Leicestershire succumbed to defeat at home against Derbyshire while Middlesex recorded a three-day victory in Cardiff against Glamorgan by an innings and 82 runs.  

 The results at this stage leave Middlesex fifth in Division two with 36 points, 10 points ahead of Leicestershire who are currently on 26 points from their three matches - giving us great incentive to produce a positive result at Lord’s to overtake our hosts in the table.

When we last met:

The two teams shared the honours last season in the two meetings in red-ball cricket, with Leicestershire winning at the Uptontsteel County Ground and Middlesex earning revenge at Merchant Taylor’s School.

 In the first meeting at home, our visitors declined to enforce the follow-on with a 159 run first-innings lead and a magnificent 6-48 from Chris Wright in their second innings set us a target of 378 runs to win.  Marcus Harris (185) and Colin Ackermann (126 not out) put on a stunning 243 runs for the third wicket to help us get home with five wickets to spare.

 Later on in the season, our opposition reversed the result with 154 from Sam Robson helping them post 324 all out, with Will Davis (5-66) our standout bowler.  In reply, Ackermann (82) was the mainstay in our first-innings 228, and we were set 292 to win.  Despite 52 from Josh Inglis and 46 from Harris, we were skittled for 171 all out with Tim Murtagh’s 4-36 doing the main damage.

 Opposition players to watch:

The win over Glamorgan was Shaheen Shah Afridi’s debut for Middlesex and the left-arm pacer impressed, with match figures of 4-69.  The Pakistan international has taken 95 Test wickets at a cost of 25.08, making him one of, if not the best Test pacer around currently.  

 Sam Robson’s 154 was a big factor in Middlesex beating us last season in London, and the former England opener was the only Middlesex batter to pass 1000 runs last season in the County Championship, hitting 1047 at an average of 40.26, scoring three centuries (including a season-best 253) in the process.

 Our players to watch:

  Captain Colin Ackermann will be a key wicket for the Middlesex attack, by nature of his performances against our opposition last season.  Our skipper will be looking to continue his run of form against Middlesex with another big performance this week.

 Ed Barnes’ performance against Derbyshire last week was one of the few positives which the Running Foxes could take away from their defeat, with our all-rounder impressing with bat (34 not out in the first innings and facing 51 balls in the second innings trying to bat out day four) and ball, with his maiden five-wicket haul (5-101).  Barnes has really grown into that all-rounder role at Leicestershire and is now our leading wicket-taker this season with 12 wickets - he will be hoping for plenty more in his first ever career appearance at Lord’s.

SQUAD: Head Coach Paul Nixon has named a 13-man squad to travel to Lords for our fourth County Championship fixture tomorrow. 

Leicestershire CCC from 13:

Colin Ackermann (C), Hassan Azad, Ed Barnes, Will Davis, Sam Evans, Beuran Hendricks, Louis Kimber, Ben Mike, Wiaan Mulder,  Callum Parkinson, George Rhodes, Harry Swindells (wk), Nick Welch, Chris Wright.