Denly seals Panthers’ first T20 win
Somerset 152-4 (20 ov) lost to Middlesex 155-2 (17.1 ov) by 8 wickets
Joe Denly’s stunning 98 and a confident knock from debutant Ryan Higgins helped Middlesex Panthers end their torrid form in this season’s Natwest T20 Blast with victory over Somerset.
In a ‘home’ game played south of the river at The Oval, the Panthers restricted Somerset to 152-4 in their 20 overs, in spite of 74 from England’s Craig Kieswetter.
Middlesex lost Dawid Malan and Eoin Morgan early on but recovered thanks to Denly’s outstanding innings, the opener hitting 10 fours and four sixes.
He shared an unbroken stand of 128 with 19-year-old Higgins, who made 44 on his first appearance, and appropriately it was Denly who struck the winning runs.
It marked Middlesex’s first victory in T20 this year after six straight defeats.
They began this match well, conceding just three runs off Somerset’s first two overs, but then shipped 38 in the next three as Kieswetter and Chris Jones ramped up the scoring during the powerplay.
Jones went in the ninth over, one of two victims of the increasingly impressive Ravi Patel, and at halfway the visitors were 70-1.
Peter Trego followed soon after as Middlesex put a squeeze on, limiting boundaries and removing Alviro Petersen in the 17th over.
Kieswetter and James Hildreth hit 41 together in 20 balls to help Somerset reach 152-4.
Malan’s golden duck in the first over was not the start Panthers would have wanted but Denly showed an early glimpse of what his innings would bring when he struck two sixes off Trego in the third over.
Morgan perished a few balls later and Somerset tightened things up to limit Middlesex to 60-2 after nine overs, just short of the required rate.
Zimbabwean-born Higgins, who has been in impressive form for the second XI, carried that through to the first team with early sixes off Jamie Overton and provided steady back-up for Denly.
The ex-Kent man finished things off in style, with six fours in 11 balls, as Middlesex won with almost three overs to spare.
Follow West London Sport on Twitter
Find us on Facebook
