7:29 PM IST and 2:59 PM Local Time: Surrey win by 6 wickets! It was not meant to get that tough but eventually Surrey bail themselves out and in fine style. It has been a fine execution of skill from their captain who is playing purely as a batter. He was calm and did well to see his side across the finishing line.
Middlesex won the toss and elected to bat first. The openers Max Holden and Adam Rossington started off well as they raced to 37 in 5 overs. However, three poor shots where the batters looked to force the issue, triggered a mini collapse. From 37/0, the batting side slipped to 37/3. Both openers were gone and soon the score was tottering at 50/4. Small partnerships were being stitched but the Surrey side regularly pegged and reduced Middlesex to 89/6 and that looked pretty ugly.
Finally, the recovery came and it was Eathan Bosch, alongside Luke Hollman who made it happen. They stitched a 53 runs stand for the 7th wicket and pushed the score to 142 before Bosch was run out of the second last ball. Hollman got 35 next to his name and Bosch contributed with 31. Eventually, the innings came to an end at 143/8. The pick of the bowlers was Yousuf Majid with 2/25 next to his name.
It looked like a relatively easy chase at the halfway point. However, it was anything but that. The new ball bowling from Noah Cornwall and Tom Helm was spitting venom. The ball was doing a lot of the surface, and the batters had no clue how to play it. Especially Jason Roy who played a rather unfortunate innings of 2 off 13. Middlesex picked up 2 in the first 6 and the Surrey side were stuttering at 23/2 at that stage.
Sam Curran and Ollie Pope did some of the recovery act before Pope was gone leaving the score at 42/3. The pressure once again rose when Dan Lawrence was gone soon too leaving the score at 56/4. Middlesex were marginally favourites at that point.
However, from then on, Surrey did not look back. Laurie Evans was the perfect partner, Curran was looking for. The pair added 88 runs off 48 balls! Curran was the aggressor and he picked out his bowlers and moments so perfectly. He finished with 71 off 47. Laurie Evans added 34 off 21.
The pair saw the chase through and got past the finish line with 9 balls to spare. The pick of the bowlers was Tom Helm for his 2/24. It has been a poor start for Middlesex in this year's T20 Blast. However, on the other hand, Surrey have been flying high with perfect performances.