Surrey vs Middlesex Panthers T20 Blast

Surrey have named a thirteen man squad for their NatWest T20 Blast game against the Middlesex Panthers at Lord’s this evening.
Jade Dernbach is unavailable for the London derby due to a recurrence of a hamstring strain against Gloucestershire last Friday.
The Surrey squad to play the Middlesex Panthers in the NatWest T20 Blast at Lord’s on Friday 24th July:
Gary Wilson (capt)
Zafar Ansari
Gareth Batty
Rory Burns
Steven Davies
Matthew Dunn
Tillikaratne Dilshan
Tim Linley
Azhar Mahmood
Stuart Meaker
Robin Peterson
Kevin Pietersen
Jason Roy
safe to say the viscount will be joining churchy in the commentary box   

Middlesex squad

Eoin Morgan (c)
Dan Christian
Joe Denly
Neil Dexter
Steven Finn
Ryan Higgins
Dawid Malan
Ravi Patel
Harry Podmore
Ollie Rayner
Toby Roland-Jones
John Simpson
Paul Stirling

middlesex win toss and will bat
viscount and davies miss out
third degree keeps

30-0 from 3.3!! Meaker 3 balls for 11; Dunn 2 overs for 17. Not a good start!

Been impressed with Dunn. Good pace.

Watching on Sky and it's the first time I've seen Dunn like. Looks to have decent wheels and good control for a young man.
Star of the show with 4-30 was Stuart Meaker. Every time I've seen him live he's looked a class act. He comes across as a real competitor; no sign of him being deterred when he gets hit and he seems well up for a scrap. Guildford/corporal you'll have seen far more of him in action than I; how far off earning further England honours do you think he is? (I'm under the impression he's featured for the lions previously?)

jimbohammers wrote:Been impressed with Dunn. Good pace.

Jimbo - yes, I like Dunn a lot. Good pace as you say and the right attitude. Not a great batsman but he values his wicket. Fine fielder too. I sat by his dad all day yesterday but didn't realise who he was until the end of play - fortunately I had been very complimentary about his lad!! He didn't expect his son to play tonight due to a niggling injury which needs a bit of rest. Guess he was selected as we wanted a last push to get us a home game in the quarter finals. Expect he'll sit out Sunday's 50 over game.

Cheers Guildford. One to watch for sure.

Roy dropped twice!

Hi Pack - Meaker was on fire at Guildford this week. My post on the 'Surrey v Kent' thread yesterday refers. Real pace and dermination. Certainly a competitor as you say - his cry which greeted his first wicket yesterday was ear splitting.

He's had a bit of international exposure - Lions and the odd ODI - but has been held back by injuries in the last year which have kept him out of the Surrey side too much. He's now looking back to his sharpest and as long as he can retain fitness could well kick on to Test level. I'm sure he'll soon be back on the England radar if not already.

It's great to see Meaker back and now surely a regular first choice selection.  His career to date has been marked by fits and starts, and frequent injuries which have disturbed his rhythmn also including for some while after he's returned to the side.

Pleased that Burns made a decent score in T20 match.

Stat alert - sixth T20 win in a row for Surrey at Lords and ninth in all from the eleven matches played there between the two counties. This, added to the seven wins at The Oval brings the total to 16, the most wins Surrey have had against any county. The next highest is 13 wins over Kent.

Drifting even further off topic I missed a stat after the Glamorgan match - they are the only county that Surrey have played T20 cricket against at The Oval that they have never beaten at least once. Two wins for the Welsh county and an abandonment.

Back to this evening's game - Meaker's bowling a big plus and I thought Azhar and Dilshan were very good too.
Batting showed a lack of patience. You can't always smash it everywhere and, chasing a modest total on a tricky wicket, picking off the bad balls and looking for ones and twos off the likes of Finn and Patel would have got Surrey home more comfortably. Robbie Peterson typified some addled thinking when having helped get Surrey into a position where no risks were required he went for a silly shot off Finn. On the plus side Burns showed he can do a job in white ball cricket.

Davies giving up the gloves proved costly tonight as presumably had he been willing to keep he would have played instead of Burns. I'm told he no longer even practices his wicket keeping so it seems he is now solely a batsman which might explain why there's a rumour going round that Surrey are interested in bringing in another wicket keeper batsman for next season.

looking like davies will be off at the end of the season
shame that the maynard thing got to him so badly a man with that much talent should be playing for england