By Huzaifa Yousafzai from Lords
Having stormed to 122 for 3 after 16 overs of the third innings, Middlesex looked set to take a mammoth lead and push on towards a victory against Gloucestershire at Lords.
However, in the space of just 14 overs, Middlesex lost seven wickets for only 43 runs as Gloucestershire were set a target of 234 to win.
Despite some nervy moments, Gloucestershire eventually chased the total with four wickets still in hand and plenty of time to spare on the fourth and final day.
With Division Two rivals Sussex and Yorkshire both completing big innings victories, the defeat at home to Gloucestershire put Middlesex in third place and their promotion hopes in jeopardy.
Middlesex’s first team Coach Richard Johnson admitted, “It wasn’t a plan to go out there and score 200 in 20 overs or anything like that, but we just got off to a great start, so we were always going to bat until the end of the (third) day and maybe even some of day four.”
“Throughout the whole game bar probably forty minutes at the end of the third day, I thought we played very good cricket and dominated the match. However, everyone can see that during the 40 minutes at the end of the third day we had a bit of a brain fade and messed up.”
Speaking post-game, Johnson said, “It wasn’t a set thing to go out and be aggressive we just seemed to go with the momentum and ended up getting carried away a little bit. We took our eye off the ball and sometimes when you look too far ahead and too quickly you mess up which is what we did and it’s a real harsh lesson that we’ve learned there.”
“With the weather around we wanted to be positive but obviously not reckless and we had a great start to the third innings with Robbo (Sam Robson) and Rocky (Mark Stoneman) and then Maxi (Max Holden) going in after. They just found a rhythm and found a way of playing that got us going at six runs per over, so I just think the rest of the team walking out got carried away with that momentum.”
Despite acknowledging his teams self-inflicted batting collapse, Johnson was also very quick to put some of the blame towards the frequent, sometimes confusing stoppages that occurred throughout the game.
“Day three was a tough day in terms of whether as we seem to have lost a lot of time to a bit of cloud really. There was a period there for about an hour and a half where it didn’t rain, and we had blue sky, but we were stuck in the changing room which was a bit confusing to be honest.”
Johnson claims that the extra time lost in the game slightly thwarted his team’s plans leading to them trying even harder to force a result against Gloucestershire.
“We wanted to be out there, but we weren’t so that probably put a little bit more pressure on us to try and push the game a little bit but certainly not to the level of losing 60 runs for 9 wickets; that certainly wasn’t part of the plan.”
Gloucestershire head coach Mark Alleyne also said he could feel that Middlesex would try to force a result as time was against them and results elsewhere were not falling in their favour.
“After the first two days that Yorkshire had in their match it meant Middlesex had to chase the game against (Gloucestershire) and so that was why the declaration was always going to be behind the Middlesex total. It would give them that jeopardy of what to do and how to approach the match and (the declaration) ended up working out really well for us last night (on Day 3).”
Middlesex are now 15 points behind Yorkshire and need to win their next two games as well as hoping other results go their way if they want to finish in the top two and regain promotion.
“It’s not over yet,” said Johnson, “(Sussex, Middlesex and Yorkshire) all got two games left. Weather at this time of year comes in to play, so does bad light and even (SMILING) sunshine, so you never know when you’re out there (on the field) or not.”
Although Middlesex would probably need Yorkshire to lose one of their remaining matches, Johnson remained adamant that his side needed to remain focused on themselves with two tough away games coming against Derbyshire and Sussex.
“It is all on us now, so we have just got to go back to focusing on what we’re doing. Derbyshire will put up a fight and give us a tough game and it’s up to us to stand up to that. We have to do the basics well and try to ignore what’s going on in the rest of the country as well as making sure that we end the season in a really positive manner.”
