Middlesex v The Australians, Lords – 19.6.10

On a cool, breezy and cloudy Saturday, a small but solid core of the RUASCC team made the trip to Lord’s for a 50-over tour match between Middlesex and The Australians. Eagle and Chan (who made such an important stand in last week’s game at Farley Hill) and Wardy (who also played at Farley Hill) were alongside me for what was my first visit to the Home of Cricket - and I was made to feel very welcome indeed. It’s a very hospitable sport is cricket.



The match began as Australia v The Australians as the Middlesex opening partnership of David Warner and Adam Gilchrist came to the crease. Not since the South African visit of 2009 has a touring side faced so many of their own countrymen at Lord's.

David Warner did what he often does: he hit a superb straight drive and was then caught behind all before the end of the first over of the day. Then Adam Gilchrist did what he often does: he hit two enormous sixes in a very attacking 38 before he was caught on the boundary going for another big one. Meanwhile, Owais Shah almost did what he often does: run himself out before reaching double figures. Fortunately for all concerned he survived and went on to score an impressive 92 from 123 balls. Despite this, the top three batsmen are all equally likely to play for England in the near future.

When the first Test-Match-less Middlesex batsman, Malan, was out for 2 the score was 86-3 and those of us who hadn’t seen the county bat before were concerned about the length of the tail. We needn’t have worried - we only got to see three more of them: Dexter (45) put on 88 with Shah and Newman (55 not out) put on a further 63 before Shah was caught just eight runs short of a deserved hundred. The home side then put on a further 36 runs to close on 273-5 from their 50 overs. Doug Bollinger was easily the pick of the Aussie bowlers with 3-24 from his eight overs, four from each end of the ground.

During lunch we chatted to a group of Australians sitting behind us: half-a-dozen Aussie Rules footballers and a girl who was “fresh off the boat” – at Lord’s just a week after arriving in England for the first time. Chan very kindly shared his lunch with them (three different types of olives, artichokes, a 2005 Monte Nobile from the foothills of southern Italy and some ham cured for 14 months in black pepper – we were at Lord’s after all) and I got a small Australian flag tattooed on my left forearm because when you’ve had a small glass of Wolf Blass you start to think that sort of thing is bloody funny. We learned that the Aussies were not huge fans of Shane Watson (“the worst cricketer in Australia” had just been taken for 44 runs in seven overs) and discussed his resemblance to the young Patrick Swayze in Ghost, something the Cricinfo website is clearly already aware of:



The sun came out a couple of time in the afternoon and for a few minutes it felt quite warm but generally it was a healthy intake of Bacardi and coke that kept the blood flowing. Everyone’s favourite Dirty Dancer Shane Watson opened the batting for Australia with wicketkeeper Tim Paine and they’d put on 26 when Paine was run out backing up too far at the non-striker’s end (a fluke caused by bowler Murtagh dropping a sharp return chance onto the stumps). With the score on 50 Watson was also run out, this time more conventionally by David Warner’s direct hit from point. Michael Clarke lasted only four balls before he was lbw to Murtagh and twice-Ashes-losing-Captain Ricky Ponting was dismissed in similar fashion for 17. The Australians were 64-4 with only no-hopers Cameron White and Michael Hussey left to protect the tail.

White and Hussey are, of course, two of the best in the world at this sort of thing and they simply added 176 in the next 33 overs without doing anything particularly spectacular. White scored eight fours and a six in his 106 while Hussey only found the boundary six times in his 72 not out. I missed the aforementioned partnership between Eagle and Chan last week but I understand it was absolutely nothing like this.

White’s dismissal (again to Murtagh, 3-43) with the score on 240 didn’t change much, in fact, it possibly even sped things up as Steve Smith hit 28 from 17 balls to see the Aussies home with two overs and five wickets to spare.

Meanwhile, up in Edinburgh, England were preparing for the upcoming One Day Series with a comfortable victory of their own against Scotland, Strauss and Kieswetter each scoring a half-century.

So what does this tell us? Well, I suggest that it may (or may not) be a close series. I think Strauss, Kieswetter and Morgan will do well for England unless Bollinger gets them out and I think Cameron White is the biggest danger for the Aussies, unless we can get him out. This all depends on the weather of course. If Jimmy Anderson is swinging the ball he can get Ponting lbw before he starts moving his feet and if Shahzad can get the reverse swing working with the old ball we might be able to restrict the late flow of runs by taking wickets at key moments. Having said that, we could still lose horribly. And with that I think I’ve covered all the bases with appropriately vague and non-committal predictions.

The important thing was that we all enjoyed the day and nobody vomited anywhere on the way home.