Panthers give Brown Caps T20 Mauling

27 June 2009

Surrey fell to another Twenty20 defeat on Saturday, this time at the hands of London rivals the Middlesex Panthers, who chased down a target of 162 with ten balls to spare.

The Brown Caps won the toss and batted first, with the new look opening pair of Michael Brown and Chris Jordan making impressive use of the opening six powerplay overs, hitting some big shots over the top and running hard to maximise the potential of every push or mishit.

The two batted together for nine overs, putting on 76 runs before Jordan hesitated going for a quick single, slipped and was easily run out.

However, with Surrey looking firmly on top beforehand, the loss of Jordan combined with the introduction Dawid Malan put a halt to the quick run scoring of the first eight overs. Malan’s first over, the ninth of the innings, was a maiden and his further three cost the Panthers only 17 runs as his flat delivery ark frustrated all Brown Cap efforts at acceleration.

Stewart Walters came and went for nine off eleven balls and Brown was then joined by captain Usman Afzaal, who hit some lovely blows to reach 25 off 17 balls before being run out by a great throw from Owais Shah.

Brown had gone nine runs earlier though, holing out off Tyrone Henderson on the midwicket boundary for an excellent 77 from 54 balls.

Chris Schofield hit two more boundaries before being caught by Malan off Silverwood and Chris Murtagh, who has spent the majority of the season captaining the Second XI, hit his first ball for four as Surrey ended on a respectable 160/5.

The large Saturday afternoon crowd thought they going to be in for a tight chase, and it began to look that way when the Panthers were reduced to 46/2 in the seventh over, Billy Godleman bowled by Chris Jordan and Neil Dexter run out by Stewart Walters.

Sadly for Surrey though, for the second game in a row they were foiled by an England player. This time it was Owais Shah who combined with Malan to put on exactly one hundred, hitting three sixes and four fours – including some sumptuous straight drives – in 61 from 41 balls. Malan played an excellent foil to Shah, taking 38 off 35 balls before being smartly caught and bowled by Chris Schofield.

There was to be no late innings wobble for Middlesex though and Twenty20 specialist Tyrone Henderson ended the game in quick sharp style, blasting 14 off just 6 balls as the Panthers cantered to a seven wicket victory.

The Brown Caps will conclude their Twenty20 Cup campaign for 2009 tomorrow when they travel to Beckenham to play the Kent Spitfires. The game starts at 2.30pm and tickets will be available on the door. Ball by ball commentary will also be available, courtesy of BBC London 94.9, on www.surreycricket.com.