Warwickshire v Middlesex - One-Day Cup Preview

Warwickshire face Middlesex in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup tomorrow, aiming to complete a perfect Rugby Festival with a third win out of three. Victories over Northamptonshire and Kent in the first two

brocky

2025-08-14T16:57:48.000Z

Warwickshire face Middlesex in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup tomorrow, aiming to complete a perfect Rugby Festival with a third win out of three.

Victories over Northamptonshire and Kent in the first two games in the elegant school setting have lifted the Bears among the front-runners in the Group B table. Next comes a Middlesex side likely to present a tough challenge having won two out of three so far, most recently chasing down 387 to beat Durham at Chester-le-Street.

It has the hallmarks of another cracking game – and coach Ian Westwood says the Bears are relishing the Rugby atmosphere which has helped them put two wins on the board.

“It would be great to make it three out of three. That would put us in a good position in the group but Middlesex are a strong team who had a great win on Wednesday so we will have to be at our best. But we are playing some good cricket and the atmosphere is good so hopefully we can keep it going.”

A feature of the Bears’ progress in the competition so far has been the impact of emerging players, notably Vansh Jani (125 runs at 41.66) and Kai Smith (119 runs at 39.66) with the bat and Taz Ali (ten wickets at 9.70) with the ball. To that list on Wednesday was added seamer Adam Sylvester who made his List A debut against Kent and bowled 5-1-7-1 – a remarkable spell in a match in which overall runs were scored at 5.35 per over.

“It was a good team performance against Kent. Taz showed his skills again with the ball and it was also nice to get off to a better start with the bat. Barnard and Yates at the top showed really good intent and set a nice foundation. It became a bit tricky in the middle as the pitch slowed up but another great partnership from Kai and Vansh got us to a good score and we defended it solidly.”