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MIDDLESEX V KENT | MATCH REPORT

Match report provided by the ECB Reporters Network.

DAY THREE

Middlesex (229 & 86-1) beat Kent (186 & 128) by nine wickets

Veteran seamer Tim Murtagh recorded a 10-wicket match haul to reach his 1,000th in all formats for Middlesex and set up a second successive LV= Insurance County Championship victory as they triumphed against Kent.

The Seaxes’ player-coach, who is now in his 17th season with the county and turns 42 later this summer, scythed through the visitors’ line-up with six for 42 – and match figures of 10 for 82 – as they crumbled to 128 all out at Lord’s.

Ben Compton and Jack Leaning had dragged Kent back into contention with their solid 87-run partnership before seven wickets tumbled for only 22, leaving Middlesex to chase a modest target of 86.

They achieved that in 24.3 overs, with Sam Robson compiling an unbeaten 41 and Pieter Malan 24 not out to steer their side across the line by nine wickets.

Trailing by just three runs at 40 for two overnight, Kent moved into the lead when Compton nudged Ethan Bamber to the boundary, but overall the morning session proved a tough slog for the batting side, who were restricted to less than two an over.

Middlesex’s four seamers all bowled with accuracy throughout, with Tom Helm – wicketless in the visitors’ first innings – unlucky to claim just a single victim this time despite beating the bat on several occasions.

Helm also induced a sharp edge from Leaning on 33, but Robson, flinging himself to his right at second slip, was unable to complete what would have been a stunning one-handed catch.

However, Robson gobbled up the next chance that came his way to remove Leaning, two short of his half-century, off Ryan Higgins’ bowling and Middlesex seized on that opening by picking up two more wickets before lunch.

The normally free-scoring Jordan Cox was restricted to six from 36 balls before Bamber had him caught at slip and Murtagh struck with the penultimate delivery of the session, pinning Kent captain Sam Billings lbw for a duck.

Compton, who dropped anchor to play a typically obdurate innings of 38 in more than three and a half hours, paid the price for an uncharacteristic lapse just after the interval, dabbing Murtagh straight to gully.

The seamer claimed a five-for – the 39th of his first-class career – in his next over, knocking back Joey Evison’s off stump and followed that up with his landmark wicket four balls later as Matt Quinn was leg before swinging across the line.

Those sandwiched a second for Bamber, who had Grant Stewart caught behind and last pair Wes Agar and Michael Hogan threw the bat, both depositing Murtagh into the stand to pad out Kent’s paltry total by 19 before Helm belatedly collected his solitary wicket to wrap up the innings.

Robson, having survived a scare when Agar’s first delivery zipped through him and away for byes, gradually settled into the groove with a sweetly-struck cover boundary off Hogan and four more off Quinn.

Although Mark Stoneman perished for 13, slapping Quinn’s half-volley to mid-off, Malan joined forces with Robson for an unbroken partnership of 57 that sealed their side’s win shortly after tea.

DAY TWO

LV= INSURANCE COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP DIVISION ONE

Middlesex 229

Kent 186 & 40-2

Tim Murtagh dismissed England opener Zak Crawley for a golden duck and was on a hat-trick on a day of clattering wickets between Middlesex and Kent at Lord’s.

Murtagh, who turns 42 in August, making him the third oldest seamer in county cricket behind Gareth Berg and Michael Hogan, denied Crawley valuable batting time ahead of the first Ashes Test, causing him to fend a shortish ball into the hands of Stephen Eskinazi at slip. The former Ireland international then pinned Daniel Bell-Drummond with the very next ball, forcing Jack Leaning to come out and defend the hat-trick ball.

Murtagh’s spell ended at 2-9, before Leaning and Ben Compton nursed the visitors to 40-2, a deficit of just three when bad light ended play four overs early.

Earlier, combative all-rounder Ryan Higgins’ fourth half century of the season rescued Middlesex following another top-order collapse, his 71 out of a total of 229 granting the Seaxes a first-innings lead of 43 despite 4-60 from Wes Agar.

All this drama came after Kent were dismissed for 186 in the morning session, Compton top-scoring with 52 while Murtagh and Ethan Bamber claimed four wickets apiece.

Resuming on 113-6 not out batters Compton and Grant Stewart initially prospered against bowling which lacked the miserly quality of 24 hours previously.

Compton nicked one between slip and gully to reach an obdurate 50 from 165 balls and shortly afterwards four leg byes raised a precious 50 stand for the seventh wicket. However, Compton departed to the very next ball, an attempted pull shot out of keeping with the rest of his watchful vigil ending up in the gloves of wicketkeeper John Simpson.

While wickets fell at the other end Stewart went into all-out attack mode. The Kent man has history of such heroics against the Seaxes, his blistering career-best of 103 having come in Kent’s 342-run pink ball game thrashing of the men of Lord’s five years ago.

Stewart wouldn’t reach those heights, but he lofted one offering from Bamber into the Tavern Stand before smiting another blow over the short boundary on the leg side.

It took a catch in a million to see the back of him, Tom Helm somehow clinging on one-handed to a steepling, swirling top edge which found its way to fine third man.

Middlesex, perhaps buoyed by their successful final innings run chase against Nottinghamshire on Sunday, began with a flurry of boundaries, Mark Stoneman square driving and then cutting wide balls from Agar to the point fence in the first over. Sam Robson caught the mood, driving a trio of balls from Hogan through cover and mid-off.

It would though prove a false dawn as Stoneman fell to the first ball of Agar’s second over, cutting at one far to close to him for the shot.

Pieter Malan failed to build on his 61 in the Notts run chase, surviving two big lbw shouts before perishing to a leg-side strangle almost immediately after lunch.

It sparked the all-too familiar procession of Middlesex’s top order too and from the pavilion to a mixture of good balls and injudicious shot making, stand-in skipper Eskinazi and John Simpson in the former category, while Sam Robson was very much in the latter camp.

At 90-6 the hosts were up against it, but Higgins stood firm, driving the ball confidently and playing with a security which had eluded his teammates higher up the order. Again, not for the first time this season he found an ally in Luke Hollman, the leg-spinning all-rounder hitting cleanly in a stand of 75.

Once Hollman was bowled by Matthew Quinn, Higgins, who reached 50 in 93 balls with seven fours, began swinging for the hills, bludgeoning a six high into the Mound Stand and just clearing the rope with another blow off Agar. He perished attempting to repeat the feat, but Middlesex’s advantage looked useful.

DAY ONE

Ethan Bamber spearheaded a potent Middlesex bowling performance with three wickets as they reduced Kent to 113 for six on a rain-affected opening day in the LV= Insurance County Championship.

Seamer Bamber, who caught the eye with a six-wicket match haul in last week’s win against Nottinghamshire, impressed again with figures of three for 26 to give the home side an early advantage at Lord’s.

He was backed up by player-coach Tim Murtagh, who collected the scalps of England opener Zak Crawley and Sam Billings, while Tom Helm was unlucky to remain wicketless after a fiery spell of bowling.

Ben Compton was the only Kent player to enjoy any degree of success, batting through for a patient undefeated 38 when bad light and rain curtailed play midway through the afternoon session.

With captain Toby Roland-Jones rested, Stephen Eskinazi took over the reins for Middlesex, fulfilling his first duty by winning the toss and inserting the opposition – which has been their preferred tactic so far this summer.

However, this was the first time the Seaxes’ decision to bowl first had paid immediate dividends as they reduced Kent to 48 for four, with consistent spells by both Bamber and Helm.

The latter made the ball fizz off the surface and almost removed Compton, initially with an edge that flew just short of third slip en route to the boundary and then having a strong lbw shout turned down.

Instead it was Murtagh who made the breakthrough, moving the ball back up the slope to bowl Crawley – who had just dispatched him twice to the short off-side boundary – through the gate for 11.

Bamber gained his reward for a miserly stint at the Pavilion End as Daniel Bell-Drummond flashed hard outside off stump and Eskinazi stretched across at first slip to pluck the ball out of the air.

Jack Leaning was next to depart, taken in the slips prodding forward at Ryan Higgins – who also bowled consistently to return one for 13 – and Bamber struck again in the next over when he uprooted Jordan Cox’s off stump to send him on his way for a fourth-ball duck.

Murtagh kept the pressure on Kent post-lunch, producing an inswinging yorker that pinned Billings in front for 14, but Joey Evison did his best to bring some impetus to the innings with boundaries off Murtagh and Helm.

Evison’s knock was brought to an abrupt end as soon as Bamber rejoined the attack and had the all-rounder caught behind, persuading him to nibble at the first delivery of his second spell.

Grant Stewart – who made his only first-class hundred against Middlesex back in 2018 – went for his shots, lifting Bamber into the Mound Stand to reach 16 not out before the light deteriorated and the umpires halted play at 3pm.