No prisoners

Today’s game in a nutshell? Pretty disastrous if you’re a Surrey fan. Pretty good one if you’re a Middlesex supporter though, I’d have thought!

I suppose the best way of looking at it from a Surrey point of view (she said, adjusting her philosophical hat) is that there are young guys in the team who will live to bat again, and have much better days. There are older players in the team who have experienced far worse days than they have just had. Actually, this applies to both Middlesex and Surrey players. Ramps and Udal will have seen it all before, good and bad, for different teams in their careers.

Fair play to Middlesex though. Deadly rivals they may be, but I have been impressed. Toby Rowland-Jones caught the eye today with his many wickets, and Middlesex will be well pleased with the way the game has gone. It’s pretty much a nailed-on certainty they will do unto Surrey what Surrey did to Northants, and win by an innings. And you can’t really complain: it has been deserved.

This will do the world of good for Middlesex’s attempts to claw their way up the table. For Surrey, it will have to be about rebuilding confidence. They have the ability but the consistency is not there. To an extent they will have to re-evaluate. It’s been a shocker of a game by and large for all the players, possibly one of the worst in recent history (and that’s saying something, looking back to last year). They are going to have to use this humiliation to come out and fight, because Sussex will be rubbing their hands at the thought of setting about the mangled remains of a bruised and battered Surrey. With promotion on their mind, Sussex will not be in the mood for taking prisoners!