Will Jacks sets tone for Surrey on night of carnage for bowlers

NICK FRIEND AT LORD'S: Jacks' 70 - off just 24 balls - set the tone for an outrageous night of smiting, ruthless stroke-play that broadly saw no bowler spared, no matter their experience

Lord's: Surrey 223-7, Middlesex 169-9 - Surrey win by 54 runs

Scorecard

At one stage in the early throes of the Lord’s carnage, it felt almost negligent not to have the record for the fastest T20 Blast hundred to hand. Andrew Symonds is the proud owner of that particular tag, but Will Jacks was coming for him. Both, as it happens, against Middlesex.

That Jacks fell short – run out for 70 off just 24 balls – was hardly of his own making; a mix-up with Jason Roy, who rather laboured his way to 45 off 42 deliveries, left him short of his ground at the non-striker’s end, and Symonds’ 2004 benchmark – a century brought up in just 34 balls – remains safe for now. On this evidence, though, and given plenty of the talent on show in this summer’s competition, it won’t last forever.

It set the tone for an outrageous night of smiting, ruthless stroke-play that broadly saw no bowler spared, no matter their experience. Gareth Batty and Tom Curran were rare exceptions to the rule, while Sam Curran ended the evening with four wickets as last year’s runners-up turned the screw with a high-class fielding display that included a fine running catch from Curran Snr.

Truthfully, the run-spree should have come as no surprise: playing on a surface significantly off-centre, the Ground Stand was a pitching wedge away for some of the sport’s cleaner hitters, though that didn’t mean the larger hit towards the Mound Stand wasn’t challenged. Later on, when Middlesex threatened to launch a telling reply, Paul Stirling picked up a Jordan Clark slower ball into a 6,500-strong crowd en route to a 28-ball 58, also ended by a quick single that wasn’t quite completed.

The shot of the evening, however, belonged to Jacks – a stroke whose swagger bore more than a hint of resemblance to Tom Banton or, closer to home, the man at the other end. Roy, though, was an appreciative spectator. The victim was teenage Middlesex seamer Blake Cullen, who curiously spent 24 hours on loan at Surrey last season. He bowled, Jacks gave himself room and, with the most glorious swing of the bat, launched his former teammate (albeit only for a day) onto the underside of the Grand Stand roof. When quizzed about it afterwards, he offered a knowing, satisfied smile. “It was as close to a perfect team performance as you can get, I reckon,” he surmised.

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Earlier, Jacks – who spent the first half of his winter on Big Bash duty with Hobart Hurricanes – had begun his assault against Ethan Bamber, making his T20 debut. The pair represented England Under-19s together, along with leg-spinning allrounder Luke Hollman who was also part of a youthful Middlesex bowling attack that was without Tom Helm, who has tested positive for Covid-19.

The mayhem never ended; there were twin cameos from the brothers Curran, while Jamie Overton was used once again by Surrey as a big-hitting wildcard in the middle order rather than for his better-known skillset as a quickie. He was one of 15 realistic bowling options across the two sides, both of which looked light on batting when the teams were first announced.

However, the starts given by the Roy-Jacks axis and then by Stirling and Stevie Eskinazi in response meant that captains Eoin Morgan and Gareth Batty were grateful for the added depth. Even more so in Morgan’s case once Cullen – brought back at the death – was dispatched for a pair of scythed sixes over third man; both of those were no balls on height and he was promptly ordered out of the attack.

The only man to escape it all was Chris Green, a coup for Middlesex as a last-minute overseas signing; the Australian off-spinner was his team’s canniest operator, targeting almost exclusively the widest edge of the blockhole he could possibly locate. It was all perhaps best summed up by a rare miscalculation from England’s brilliant white-ball skipper, with Middlesex – presumably not by design – operating at the back end of Surrey’s innings with just four fielders outside the inner circle rather than the five permitted in the playing conditions.

The second half went the way of so many games like this, where early hope gradually gave way to a more credible realisation. Morgan, who knows the white-ball game better than anyone in St John’s Wood this evening, reflected afterwards that these high-scoring affairs either end in victory – as against Somerset in 2019 – or with an anticlimactic conclusion as a once-promising chase falls away. All told, his batsmen did all that could have been asked in the circumstances – certainly, their intent never wavered on a pitch so appetising that Surrey’s score of 223 for 7 didn’t feel unattainable.

^{Eoin Morgan was in action for Middlesex}

Stirling and Eskinazi – the second-highest run-scorer in last year’s tournament – ensured the home side were virtually neck-and-neck with Surrey’s powerplay score after six overs, and they continued for a short time thereafter. But in a chase that demanded perfection, a raucous audience – fuelled no doubt by booze and the pure thrill of being allowed back into this famous old ground – began to quieten when Stirling was run out and Eskinazi brilliantly caught, as sure a sign as any that their local rivals were in control.

Briefly, while Morgan purred, his side remained in with a shout; he slapped a pair of trademark sixes which acted as a warning – not that one was needed – of his ability to dictate the destination of this result off his own bat. He was more conspicuous than ever in attempting to do so; Middlesex were wearing a one-off green shirt in honour of their partnership with The Felix Project, a charity fighting hunger in London.

But when Morgan strode to the crease, he was luminously clad in Panther pink, wearing his green shirt beneath the county’s standard sleeveless sweater, with green pullovers not mocked up for the occasion. For a short while, it gave proceedings a tremendously village feel: Morgan and Eskinazi batting in tandem but in jarring, contrasting kits. Once England’s captain fell, however, top-edging to deep square leg, Middlesex’s race was run and a belting derby – thrilling for so long – petered out to an ultimately inevitable ending.