Back to the basics against Owais Shah

Right then, where to start...

I had a really good couple of days in Prague with my parents who have come over to visit my sister and me. We walked miles and saw virtually everything there was to see there. A great city for sightseeing and enjoying a cheap beer. There was a small break in our schedule that allowed the quick trip away and it was nice to spend some time with Mum and Dad and also away from the game for a couple of days; after getting back there was time for a good training session and then into another Championship match against Middlesex.

Last time we played Middlesex we held on for a very good draw after being in some trouble. A really good maiden hundred from James Taylor made sure we didn’t lose. The team we faced then, at Southgate, was, in the batting department anyway, stronger. Strauss (England) and Hughes (Australia) opened up and put on around 180 for the first wicket; they batted brilliantly and I bowled poorly in this game, no rhythm and no direction. Both these two are facing off in the Ashes and that was a good thing for us.

After looking at the wicket I was hoping for a toss win and have the feet up watching the batsmen do the work. It looked a good deck to bat on, and I’m still undecided as to if it was. Dippenaar lost the toss and we were having a bowl. I’m never too disappointed to have a bowl first up in a four-day or Test match; if it’s going to do anything for you, it’ll be now, so I wasn’t too displeased to be ‘rocking and rolling’ first up. And we got off to a pretty good start. We controlled runs with some pretty good bowling and after nine overs we had a breakthrough. I probably don’t bowl enough yorkers in ‘red’ ball matches, I have been bowling them well with the ‘white’ ball so I thought I’d try more, and it worked first time up. It wasn’t quite the best yorker I’ve ever bowled; it hit Compton just below the knee on the full dead in front. Either way my first wicket of the match and a really good start to my birthday.

Next in was Shah, this was the guy I felt was going to hold the key to the Middlesex innings. I wanted to get him early and make some big inroad. The previous night I had had a really good evening with a mate from the team, not currently playing, but he’s got a few good ideas on some of the batters around. We came up with a plan for Shah and I tried it right from ball one; it didn’t quite work. It was if Shah had been sitting with us when we were discussing the plan. First ball, smash, four. Second ball, smash, four. Not what I was hoping for. The track didn’t quite suit that style of bowling so I was going to have to go back to a standard plan. Smash, four of a good ball. That’s 12 off my over, damn. That sort of start can really propel a batter onto a great innings and it was now very important that we drag it back, bowl tight and play the waiting game.

Next over I went back to bowling line and length to Shah. I played a little with where I delivered it on the width of the crease and had success. I got him to leave one that nipped back in just a little and it clipped the top of the off stump. That’s where I should bowl, that perfect delivery which is so elusive.

The day continued like that for us, wickets and boundaries. Sure it’s nice picking up wickets regularly but we gave away too many runs at the same time. Something we would really have to address in the second innings. We bowled Middlesex out for 159, and on my birthday, I picked up six wickets. That was my second six wicket haul in as many games, the first time I have done this. I got my action right, the rhythm, the direction and the results came. A very happy boy went back up to the changing room to put my feet up for the afternoon.

It wasn’t quite like that, the wickets kept tumbling and by the end of the day I had my pads on. I don’t think the pitch was that bad looking back; it was a ‘patience’ pitch, wait for a bad ball and put it away, and in between times keep the good ones out.

A young lad, Finn impressed me bowling for Middlesex, a tall kid with a strong action and good pace caused our boys some problems. He wheeled through 24 first innings overs, a real good effort for good reward. Our tail did a great job in grabbing a very handy 86-run first innings lead. Cobb and I put on 50 for the eighth wicket and then a 49-run tenth-wicket partnership between Harris and Gurney really added some salt to the wounds. As I said in my last blog ‘any first innings lead is good’ and this one had gone from being slight to something that we were hoping to pick up four wickets before Middlesex would get in front.

It all didn’t quite go to that plan though; it went a whole lot better. We ended up only bowling them out for 91. We needed seven to win; brilliant. This innings we bowled a whole lot better, we kept their scoring to just 2.25 runs per over and this pressure brought us wickets. We dried up the boundaries, bowled really good lines and reaped the rewards; four for Harris and three for me. Both of us were chasing milestones heading into the 3rd day. I had one wicket, needing three of the four to pick up four and therefore 10 for the match, which would have been just the second in my career. Harris was after the same, three of the four for a five wicket innings. We cancelled each other out by both picking up two and wrapping up the innings like a good bowling attack should.

A very good win for us and the first Championship win of the season. It was great sitting down to lunch after already having a cheeky celebratory beer in the changing room with the lads.

I missed out on the ODI and Twenty20 team that is to continue the tour of Sri Lanka after the Tests. I am pretty disappointed about this. I was in the last ODI eleven to play and am now not in the 15 for the series. I asked why I had missed out and got the reason that I had been too expensive and I couldn’t really argue with that too much. The the only thing is that, in the last ODI series, apart from Dan and Millsy, we all were expensive. I just have to keep working to get myself back into that team, there is a Champions Trophy coming up which I want to be a part of and hopefully after a good Test series in Sri Lanka I’ll have done enough to get myself back into the team.

I have a Pro40 match tomorrow at Northants, a pitch that I had a good look at last summer during a match we played there in between the 2nd and 3rd Tests, although not playing that game, it looked a real good surface. Then starting on Tuesday a Championship match vs Essex at home. It’ll be a busy week and I’ll get a couple of more posts out during the week. You can hold me to it!!