Stirling, Franklin distract Lord's drinkers in style

For most counties Friday is T20 night but Middlesex have always preferred Thursdays. The stroll from St John's Wood to Lord's, brimming with City types anticipating their first T20 game of the season, showed why.

Many had come armed with the permitted maximum four cans of beer and intending to drink rather more than that. Such supplies have often come in handy for Middlesex fans in T20: the side finished bottom of the South Group last season, winning only two of their 13 completed matches. A seven-wicket defeat at Bristol last week hardly suggested 2015 would be much better for Eoin Morgan's side.

A lot has happened since Morgan last played in a game in England. He has been made ODI captain, an appointment widely cheered; led England to a particular gruesome World Cup exit, even by recent standards; and retained as ODI captain to the chagrin of many. A sojourn in the IPL brought few runs but much tut-tutting about missing an England ODI in Ireland..