Match report provided by the ECB Reporters Network supported by Rothesay.
DAY THREE
Division Two leaders Leicestershire crashed to their first Rothesay County Championship defeat of the season by an emphatic innings and 127 runs as Middlesex handsomely avenged their opponents’ victory at Lord’s in May.
Following on after being dismissed for 205 in their first innings in reply to Middlesex’s 534, Leicestershire were bowled out for 202 in their second innings, beaten with more than a day to spare.
Rookie fast bowlers Naavya Sharma and Noah Cornwell played key roles in a Middlesex attack lacking skipper and leading wicket-taker Toby Roland-Jones after centuries for Sam Robson and Ben Geddes against a depleted Leicestershire attack had set up the match for the visitors. Geddes, dropped on 11, went on to score 137.
Sharma’s six wickets in the contest included a career-best first-innings four for 43, while left-armer Cornwell’s four included three for 60 in the second innings, another career-best, although both were playing in only their third first-class matches.
Leicestershire’s 33-point lead at the start of this round will limit the damage inflicted by this loss. Middlesex’s third win gives them a chance to finish among the promotion contenders.
Only a rearguard effort in the morning that saw them almost double their overnight score had kept Leicestershire from being made to follow on sooner after slipping to 99 for eight before Monday’s close.
Roman Walker made 40 not out and rookie fast bowler Sam Wood 33 in forcing Middlesex to bowl 37 more overs to pick up the last two wickets. Tom Helm, who missed the early Championship rounds through injury, finished with three for 30.
In addition to a career-best three for 73 with the ball, Walker shared partnerships of 42 for the ninth wicket with Chris Wright and 64 for the tenth with 20-year-old seamer Wood, who bowls right arm but bats left-handed.
Helm moved one away to have Wright caught behind and Wood, who looked no mug with the bat as he drove Zafar for six over long-on, nicked off to Ryan Higgins, wicketkeeper Joe Cracknell holding his fifth catch of the innings.
Middlesex might have chosen not to enforce the follow-on with a view to adding a few more to their 329-run lead before giving the home side at least some incentive to pitch their ambitions higher than salvaging a draw.
In the event, perhaps mindful of getting their fingers burned when they set Northamptonshire a target at Wantage Road last week, they stuck with convention and sent their chastened opponents out again.
And what a good decision it was. Having been 82 for two before the collapse came on Monday, Leicestershire had lost their first six wickets for 80 by tea.
It seemed the resilience shown by the tail earlier in the day had counted for nothing as Sol Budinger edged Helm to second slip before Higgins came on as first change at the pavilion end and induced a tame return catch from Rishi Patel with his second ball.
Cornwell then struck in consecutive overs, bowling Liam Trevaskis, Leicestershire’s stop-gap No 3, with one that nipped back before making one climb to have Peter Handscomb caught off the splice by short leg Ben Geddes.
Ben Green was dropped by Geddes in Cornwell’s next over but added only one more run before he drove at Higgins to be caught behind for 10. Higgins then took a catch at slip as left-armer Zafar found some bounce and the edge of Lewis Hill’s bat to leave Leicestershire 80 for six.
Ben Cox and Logan Van Beek at last showed some grit, adding 58 in just under 16 overs before the dismissal of Cox, caught at leg gully at the second attempt fending off Sharma, who dismissed Walker with another short ball fended to short leg.
Wright flung the bat for 26 off 20 balls before a top-edge saw him caught at mid-on, Wood had some fun with two towering sixes in his 27 before another top-edge had him caught behind, and Van Beek finished with a defiant unbeaten 36 but Leicestershire’s fate was all but sealed by that point.
DAY TWO
Ben Geddes punished Leicestershire with his first century for Middlesex to put the Division Two leaders under pressure before teenage seamer Naavya Sharma left them facing a battle to avoid a first defeat of the season on day two of the Rothesay County Championship match at the Uptonsteel County Ground, where they closed 108 for eight in reply to Middlesex’s 534.
Badly dropped on 11 on the first evening, 23-year-old former Surrey man Geddes was eventually out for a career-best 137 as the visitors amassed their challenging total after being asked to bat first.
Then England Under-19 right-arm quick Sharma - playing in only his third first-class match at 19 years old - plunged them into disarray with four wickets in 11 balls as the promotion favourites found themselves in unfamiliar territory, despite a half-century from opener Rishi Patel.
Ben Green, the on-loan Somerset all-rounder who had been guilty of the error from which Geddes profited so handsomely, had been the best of a depleted home attack with three for 54 from 28 overs, seamer Roman Walker finishing with a career-best three for 78.
Geddes supplemented Sam Robson’s 133 on day one as next-to-bottom Middlesex posted their biggest total of the summer before Sharma, who has four for 24 from eight overs, showed the way to bowl with the much-criticised Kookaburra ball, finding movement that had eluded others, Tom Helm chipping in with two of his own as Leicestershire plunged from 39 for one to 99 for eight.
Earlier, Middlesex added a further 102 before lunch to their 336 for five overnight for the loss only of nightwatchman Sharma.
The 19-year-old, who signed his first professional contract last November, kept out 46 deliveries, hammering left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis down the ground for six but lobbing the next ball straight to mid-off.
Leicestershire could not make more inroads until the eighth over after lunch when Cracknell (38) nicked Green to first slip, the seventh-wicket pair having added 92 for the seventh wicket.
Moments earlier, Geddes, who moved from the Kia Oval to Lord’s over the winter, had pulled Sam Wood for his ninth four to complete his hundred from 167 balls.
Zafar Gohar was caught off bat and pad, before Geddes, having overtaken his previous best (124 for Surrey v Kent in 2022), was bowled by Patel, whose off-spin had not been seen in competitive professional cricket before last week but now has two wickets to his name.
Noah Cornwell, the 20-year-old left-arm seamer, was leg before without scoring but Middlesex would have been delighted with their work, even though it was worth only three bonus points.
They were happier still to have Leicestershire 39 for two inside nine overs in reply.
Sol Budinger perished for 10 from eight balls, leg before to Cornwell past the inside edge. Trevaskis, promoted to number three in the absence of the injured Rehan Ahmed, fell for three, edging Ryan Higgins to first slip, asking for confirmation that the catch had carried before he left the field.
Patel and Lewis Hill battled to rebuild but after the third wicket pair had added a painstaking 43 in 16 overs, the Middlesex tactic of bowling short to Hill paid off as the former Leicestershire captain was caught behind off the glove, pulling.
What looked initially like a well-worked breakthrough on a pitch that had hardly been helpful until then turned out to be the start of a devastating spell by Sharma that yielded four wickets in 11 balls without a run conceded.
The right-arm quick followed the dismissal of Hill by nipping one away to have Australian Test batter Peter Handscomb nicking behind, before taking two in three balls as Green fended to short leg and Ben Cox was beaten past the inside edge to be leg before, leaving Leicestershire in deep trouble at 88 for six.
That became 99 for eight as Tom Helm bowled Patel and had Logan van Beek caught behind from consecutive deliveries before Chris Wright survived the hat-trick ball.
DAY ONE
After the euphoria of winning at Lord’s for the first time in 45 years last month, Division Two leaders Leicestershire were made to toil for rewards against the same opponents at the Uptonsteel County Ground, where Middlesex opener Sam Robson posted his first Rothesay County Championship hundred of the season.
Middlesex finished on 336 for five after Robson made 133, the 37th first-class century of the 35-year-old batter’s career. Earlier, Josh De Caires, still looking for his maiden first-class century after 37 attempts, scored 76 in an opening stand of 173.
Leus Du Plooy, captain in the absence of Toby Roland-Jones, who is sidelined by a gastric bug, was out for 56 in the penultimate over.
In a Leicestershire attack without four of the bowlers that forged the victory at Lord’s, seamer Roman Walker took the first three wickets to fall and currently has career-best figures of three for 57.
The pitch had a healthy covering of grass but where the sight of a similar surface in April with a Dukes ball in hand would have had a bowler licking his lips, a Kookaburra on a bone dry day in late June is a different proposition.
It made for another of the attritional days that are becoming familiar when the Kookaburra ball is in use - not perhaps the best day to have been chosen for the supporter-led County Cricket Day initiative in which Leicestershire, among others, are participating by offering free admission.
Perhaps mindful of Monday’s forecast for still hotter conditions, and how the contest might look on day four, Leicestershire captain Peter Handscomb handed Middlesex the chance to bat first. His side extended their lead by virtue of a draw with Glamorgan last week and may be happy simply not to lose this one. Middlesex, next to bottom, desperately need a win.
They had 119 on the board by lunch, with no losses. Robson and De Caires completed half-centuries with boundaries off Logan Van Beek in the final over before the break, the home attack leaving the field wicketless in the opening session of a match for the first time this season.
Granted, they were lacking Tom Scriven, Rehan Ahmed, Ben Mike and Josh Hull because of injuries, while their leading wicket-taker of the first half of the season, Ian Holland, is playing Major League Cricket for Washington Freedom. Nonetheless it was a disappointing session for the home attack, who failed to create a real chance.
Middlesex added a further 100 between lunch and tea, albeit for the loss of two wickets, when almost all of the meaningful action from the home side’s stance took place in the space of five deliveries as Walker, playing only his fifth Championship match in four seasons at Grace Road, dismissed De Caires and Max Holden.
Finding some movement off the seam with a ball 47 overs old, Walker had the former caught behind off an inside edge, and, bowling around the wicket to the left-handed Holden, straightened one enough to pass the outside edge and clip off stump, removing Middlesex’s leading scorer for a duck.
The 24-year-old ex-Glamorgan seamer - in the last year of his current contract - picked up his third 10 overs after tea as Robson, whose hundred had come off 185 balls, for once failed to control his shot and was caught at gully.
It was a decent catch by Sol Budinger, yet merely a warm-up for what might be the best of the 25-year-old’s career - so far or still to come - five overs later as new batter Ryan Higgins flashed at Ben Green. Now at backward point, Budinger dived for a ball going past him to his left six inches above the ground and somehow caught it with his right hand.
That left Middlesex 271 for four. They would have been 286 for five had Green, at mid-off, not dropped a dolly chance offered by Ben Geddes off Van Beek on 11, although he at least partially atoned by having Du Plooy caught at second slip when looking well set for day two.
Leicestershire Men
Middlesex Men
