Who will win Middlesex vs Surrey - Vitality T20 Blast?
A London derby kicks off Middlesex and Surrey's 2018 t20 Blast campaigns, though the international calendar means several star players will be missing. Taking place at Lord’s, the match is scheduled for July 5 and the live action begins at 18:15 local time.
Middlesex vs Surrey - Vitality T20 Blast: Where to watch/Live streaming
TV channels: Sky Sports, Sony Six, SuperSport, Fox Sports, Willow TV, OSN Sports Cricket
Live streaming: NOW TV, SkyGo, SonyLiv
Toss Prediction
Recent matches at Lord's have seen the team batting first post big totals and successfully defend them. A lightning fast outfield should make batting first a priority.
Read on for team previews, betting tips, latest odds and match prediction for Middlesex vs Surrey - Vitality T20 Blast.
Middlesex Team News & Playing 11
MDX Team News
Overseas player Dwayne Bravo has flown in directly from Canada to begin his six-game stint with Middlesex, having been playing in the inaugural Global T20 Canada. Fellow overseas player Ashton Agar is absent, however - he is with Australia in their Tri Series in Zimbabwe. Middlesex have therefore retained Hilton Cartwright - who has been their overseas player for the start of the county season - until Agar arrives.
England captain Eoin Morgan is also away on international duty, while Dawid Malan's late call-up as cover for the England team rules him out too.
Richard Scott's departure as head coach does not affect the Vitality t20 Blast team, as former New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori was already in place to coach the team in the shortest format anyway.
MDX Key Players
In the absence of their top international stars, Ireland's Paul Stirling will need to set the tone at the top of the order - as he did with such regularity in the One Day Cup this season. Though he scored just one run in Ireland's two recent games against India, Stirling had previously hit two half-centuries against Scotland in the Netherlands, on the back of his three centuries (and 515 runs in total from eight innings) in the 50-over format.
The move to retain Hilton Cartwright is a sensible one, meanwhile. The Australian has been in better form in the County Championship than the limited-overs matches played so far, but he hit 60* in Middlesex's final Royal London One-Day Cup group game and offers an extra option with the ball. He also scored 249 runs - including two half-centuries - in the Big Bash League earlier this year.
Finally, Dwayne Bravo brings stacks of quality and experience in the shortest format of the game. He took 14 wickets to help Chennai Super Kings to IPL victory as well as contributing runs down the order and, most recently, has impressed with bat and ball in his brief stint with the Winnipeg Hawks in the Global T20 Canada - his last two innings brought 30 and 41 runs respectively, while he took six wickets in his three matches in total.
MDX Team Form
Middlesex failed to qualify from the Southern Division in last year's t20 Blast - winning just five of their 14 matches and tying another. One of their wins did come at Lord's against Surrey, however. This season, they won four and lost four of their eight One-Day Cup matches to finish sixth in the Southern Division - including a defeat at Lord's against Surrey - and sit fifth in the County Championship Division Two with two wins from seven games.
Middlesex Predicted Playing 11
Paul Stirling, Max Holden, Nick Gubbins, Hilton Cartwright, Dwayne Bravo, John Simpson, James Franklin, Tom Helm, James Harris, Nathan Sowter, Ravi Patel
Surrey Team News & Playing 11
SUR Team News
Like Middlesex, Surrey will be missing their top players for the London derby as a result of international duty. Their two overseas players, Aaron Finch and Nic Maddinson, are in Zimbabwe with Australia, while Jason Roy and Sam Curran are with England. Tom Curran was with England too but is now injured.
While it leaves them without an overseas player, they do have South African giant Morne Morkel as a Kolpak player.
SUR Key Players
The absence of explosive opening batsmen Aaron Finch and Jason Roy means Ollie Pope is the highest Surrey run scorer from last season's competition available for Lord's. Pope scored 253 runs in 13 innings in the 2017 t20 Blast.
Ben Foakes was their top scorer in the One-Day Cup, meanwhile, scoring three half-centuries in seven innings to finish with an average of 55.80.
Veteran all-rounder Rikki Clarke claimed 13 wickets with the ball in the One-Day Cup, meanwhile, and has won this competition twice before - with Surrey in 2003 and Birmingham Bears in 2014.
Morne Morkel's pace has brought him 178 wickets from 165 games in his T20 career, meanwhile. Unusually for a paceman in T20 cricket, he has a good economy rate too - going for just 7.45 runs per over.
SUR Team Form
Surrey qualified in second place in last season's Southern Division with seven wins from 12 completed games thanks to Jason Roy and Aaron Finch's explosive batting. They failed to reach finals day, however, despite posting 204/5 - Roy hitting 74 from 38 balls - in their quarter-final against Birmingham Bears.
With Jade Dernbach and Rikki Clarke in particular coming in for some punishment from the batsmen, Birmingham reached the target with four balls and six wickets to spare.
Surrey Predicted Playing 11
Mark Stoneman, Will Jacks, Ryan Patel, Rory Burns, Ben Foakes, Ollie Pope, Scott Borthwick, Rikki Clarke, Gareth Batty, Morne Morkel, Jade Dernbach
Jul 05, 2018
22:45 IST / 17:15 GMT
Lords Cricket Ground - London, England
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