Blast in the Past: Essex (Chelmsford)

Three wickets in the powerplay followed by some spin wizardry in the middle overs from Luke Hollman and Zafar Gohar enabled Middlesex to reduce the hosts to 69-8 before Simon Harmer lead a counter-attack which saw Essex plunder 73 from the last 5 overs to set a target of 143.

Middlesex in turn slipped to 74-5 in reply as Harmer tormented them ball in hand, but a stand of 52 between Joe Cracknell and Hollman helped the visitors over the line with an over to spare.

Quite a lot in all honesty. Naavya Sharma produced the early incision with a peach of a Yorker to send Michael Pepper packing and the young speedster saw the back of the dangerous Paul Walter as well in his three-over powerplay burst.

Hollman recovered from a chastening first over to produce a beguiling spell of 4-21 with his leg spin to oust the home side’s middle-order with Zafar Gohar providing superb support from the other end. There were no boundaries and 13 dots in his four overs which cost just 12 runs.

Middlesex out-fielded their hosts too, Tom Helm and Josh De Caires producing two breath-taking catches in the deep in support of the stirring bowling effort.

Hollman and Cracknell, great friends who grew up together at North Middlesex CCC, then produced a match-winning partnership of 52 just as it looked as if the Seaxes were going to revert to type and lose a game they should have won comfortably.

After so much good work in the first 15 overs of Essex’s innings, the last five bore a familiar trademark. Yes, Harmer played a gem of an innings to record a career-best in the format and it’s true there was precious little in the surface for the quicker bowlers.

However, at a time when Middlesex could have closed the game out, the bowling was ragged, allowing Essex to scramble to a competitive score, leaving fans watching from between their fingers and thinking 'here were go again.'

There was a hangover from those last 30 balls at the start of the reply, where the batting was fretful and at times had the smell of desperation about it. Understandable in a team which had won one in eight in the competition prior to yesterday.

Luke Hollman: “Don’t get me wrong, it’s a relief. There have been some tough times and some familiar feelings that we’ve experienced in recent years. But to win today against a strong Essex side was really nice. We know we’re out of the competition but hopefully we can maintain this momentum for the rest of the tournament to propel us into the 50-over competition.

“I don’t think there was any better person to see coming out to bat than Joe Cracknell. He’s my best mate, we’ve grown up together at the same club. We know how each other tick and how we win games of cricket. It was just a rinse and repeat version of that. I thought Joe did fantastically well and it was a shame he wasn’t there at the end, but the important thing is we got over the line.

“Zafar (Gohar) was superbly economical and was unfortunate not to take a wicket. I was lucky today to take the fruits. That’s going to be the topsy-turvy nature of bowling together in white-ball cricket and I am sure there will be days when I don’t get rewards and he does. I really enjoy bowling with him. It was nice for the two of us to have a big impact in the context of the game with the ball.

Regardless of already being out of the competition, any win is to be celebrated, especially off the back of five defeats in a row, four of them wretched.

The question now is can they heed Hollman’s rallying cry to get some momentum from the remaining games to take into the Metro Bank One-Day Cup?

Back-to-back wins in this competition have been as rare as hen’s teeth for Middlesex for many a year and a trip to the Utilita Bowl on Wednesday to face group leaders Hampshire Hawks represents the stiffest test possible in reversing that trend.