AYEAR ago Shaun Udal was busy rebuilding his first-class career with Middlesex after many had presumed he was finished. At the end of the 2007 season, having been released by Hampshire, he agreed to become Berkshire’s professional in the Minor Counties Championship.
But he was offered a surprise lifeline back into top-flight cricket by Middlesex and, in December 2007, signed a two-year contract which would take him past his 40th birthday.
Even then, Udal could hardly have envisaged the year would end with him taking the captaincy and winning the Twenty20 Cup with his new county. But now the former England offspinner faces the first major test of his leadership as he tries to salvage Middlesex’s season following a nightmare defence of their Twenty20 crown – which has seen them lose all six of their games so far and crash out of the competition – while failing to win any of their four County Championship Division Two matches.
The Panthers did get through their group in the Friends Provident Trophy but went on to lose to Udal’s old club Hampshire in the quarter-finals and have last season’s danger man Dawid Malan consigned to the second XI after a disastrous run of form.
Today’s match at Bristol against Gloucestershire offers a chance to win a four-day game for the first time this summer as Udal can count on the England trio of Andrew Strauss, Owais Shah and
Eoin Morgan among his squad. The former Hampshire spinner said: ‘Since coming to Lord’s it has been the most amazing 18 months of my life and you always hope that will continue.
‘Obviously we want to get promoted in the Championship and win every game. ‘Winning a trophy last year was motivation enough for us to try to do well again. ‘My plan here was always to steady the ship.
‘You have to start well really, if you want to win anything but it’s nice we have had Straussy available for a few games.’ Source {Metro}
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