RESULT
Group A, Lord's, May 01, 2011, Clydesdale Bank 40
(40 ov, T:287) 285/6

Middlesex won by 1 run

Report

Middlesex cling on in grandstand finish

Holland, conquerors of Yorkshire and Derbyshire in their first two Clydesdale Bank 40 games this season, went within two runs of making it a remarkable treble before Middlesex clung to their 100% record at Lord's

01-May-2011
Middlesex 286 for 5 beat Netherlands 285 for 6 by one run
Scorecard
Holland, conquerors of Yorkshire and Derbyshire in their first two Clydesdale Bank 40 games this season, went within two runs of making it a remarkable treble before Middlesex clung to their 100% record at Lord's.
The Dutch appeared to be out of the game when Middlesex, put in to bat on a pitch with an invitingly short boundary on the grandstand side, set them a target of 287 but they almost got there in an incredible finish.
Wesley Barresi and Tom Cooper got them going with a second-wicket partnership of 44 in six overs and Cooper put on 126 in 16 overs with Tom de Grooth for the fourth and an unbroken 66 with Mudassar Bukhari.
In the end, Bukhari needed three off the last ball from Tim Murtagh to win the game but he hit it straight to cover and managed only a single. Cooper was left unbeaten on 126 off 100 balls with 13 fours and a six, while Bukhari finished on 36 off 18 balls.
Middlesex were full of confidence after winning their first three championship matches as well as their opening 40-over game and it showed as Scott Newman and Dawid Malan led the way with an opening partnership of 120 in 19 overs.
Newman, playing with great freedom, hit 73 off 66 balls including 14 fours before he pulled Michael Swart to square leg and Malan had accelerated to 90 off 85 balls with eight fours and a six when he was caught on the midwicket boundary off Pieter Seelaar.
Paul Stirling had joined Malan in a second-wicket stand of 88 in 11 overs, the young Irishman improvising impishly to make 45 off 39 balls with six fours until Shane Mott had him brilliantly caught by Cooper, who had taken over the wicketkeeping gloves from Barresi when he damaged a finger taking a wide from Berend Westdijk.
Gareth Berg and Tom Scollay both went cheaply but Neil Dexter and Ollie Rayner picked up 29 from the last two overs, with Rayner hitting the last three balls for four, to lift Middlesex to an imposing total of 286 for five.
It looked like being too tall an order for the Dutch but Middlesex had reckoned without Cooper, De Grooth - who made 58 off 50 balls with four fours and a six - and Bukhari and were forced to come through a grandstand finish.

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Netherlands Innings
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Clydesdale Bank 40

Group A
TEAMMWLDPTNRR
SUSS12840161.070
MIDDX12840160.213
DERBS1265013-0.079
KENT1266012-0.017
NED1255012-0.361
YORKS1257010-0.147
WORCS122905-0.710
Group B
TEAMMWLDPTNRR
SURR121010211.047
DURH12920190.901
NHNTS1266012-0.304
HANTS12560110.224
WARKS1257010-0.274
LEICS122806-0.833
SCOT122905-0.857
Group C
TEAMMWLDPTNRR
SOM12920191.008
NOTTS12740150.260
ESSEX12630150.255
LANCS1265013-0.172
GLAM12450110.161
GLOUC124808-0.488
UNI1211003-0.640