MATCH REPORT | MIDDLESEX V NORTHAMPTONSHIRE | ROTHESAY COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

MATCH REPORT | MIDDLESEX V NORTHAMPTONSHIRE | ROTHESAY COUNTY CHAMPIONSHIP

Match report by ECB Reporters' Network supported by Rothesay

DAY THREE

Max Holden and Ben Geddes shared a century partnership as Middlesex completed their Rothesay County Championship campaign on a high and extinguished Northamptonshire’s faint chance of promotion.

Stand-in captain Holden scored exactly 50, with Geddes hitting an unbeaten 59 to guide the home side to their victory target of 134 with ease at Lord’s following an early alarm when Harry Conway struck twice, reducing them to 12 for two.

Northamptonshire’s Saif Zaib had at least given his side something to defend, scoring 110 – his third red-ball hundred of the season – as they were eventually bowled out for 285 in their second innings.

However, it was not enough for the visitors, who must settle for third place in Division Two, with their defeat confirming Kent’s promotion to the top flight.

Middlesex seemed on course to wrap up the Northamptonshire innings swiftly after taking two of their three remaining wickets inside the first three overs of the day, with the lead barely above 100.

Tom Helm (four for 62) found the edge of Ben Sanderson’s bat and Conway was pinned in front by Toby Roland-Jones, but Middlesex then spurned opportunities to dismiss Zaib, who had begun to go for his shots.

Dropped twice in the deep, the left-hander promptly dispatched Roland-Jones for two sixes and advanced to his third hundred of the season, while last man Yuzvendra Chahal clung on stubbornly at the other end.

The pair added a further 30 before Zaib eventually holed out, top-edging a pull off Helm to wicketkeeper Harry Duke and leaving Middlesex to chase 134 – a target that started to look a little steeper after Conway removed both openers in successive overs.

Nathan Fernandes fell to a ball that slanted across him, forcing him to play and offer a catch to second slip, with Sam Robson adjudged caught behind off what looked a dubious inside edge.

Holden eased the pressure with successive boundaries off Sanderson and, despite almost chopping the next ball onto his stumps, he and Geddes were otherwise largely untroubled as they made steady inroads.

After a brief pre-lunch interlude of spin at both ends, Northamptonshire reverted to their opening seamers and Geddes was given a life on 13 when he clipped Conway to midwicket, only for Gus Miller to fumble the catch.

Calvin Harrison returned for a second spell, enabling Sanderson to switch ends, but Holden looked comfortable as he swept and reverse-swept the leg-spinner, depositing him over the short boundary.

Geddes followed the captain’s lead, swinging Chahal for six to raise the 100 partnership and, although Holden departed in the next over, misjudging a slog sweep, it was too late to alter the outcome.

It was left to Geddes to round off Middlesex’s victory, posting his second half-century of the match before punching Chahal to the cover boundary and then nudging the spinner’s next ball for two.

DAY TWO

Half centuries for Saif Zaib and Ricardo Vasconcelos prolonged Northamptonshire’s dwindling promotion hopes on day two of their final County Championship fixture of the season with Middlesex at Lord’s.

Zaib, given a life on 25, battled his way to an unbeaten 83 while the division’s leading runscorer Vasconcelos made 69 to help the visitors reach 249-7 by stumps – a slender lead of 97 on a pitch giving some assistance to spin.

Zafar Gohar exploited that turn in the pitch to return 3-57 while Tom Helm’s two wickets with the new ball ensured Middlesex were still on top at the close.

Whether or not their stout rearguard leads to a win, Northamptonshire appear destined to come up short in their promotion push given Kent are currently well placed to beat Gloucestershire at Canterbury and so secure second place.

The pitch had morphed overnight from the seamer which had yielded 20 wickets on day one to an unresponsive surface save for some slow turn.

It led to an attritional morning where Vasconcelos and Luke Proctor played watchfully against tight bowling which largely lacked threat.

Vasconcelos escaped one lbw shout from Tom Helm on 17 which looked adjacent, but other than that was untroubled, two exquisite extra cover drives from his blade the shots of a wicketless morning for the hosts.

They didn’t have to wait long after lunch however, Danru Ferns snaring Proctor to the second ball following the resumption, though in truth the decision was a shocker, the ball striking the Steelers’ skipper on the thigh pad.

Lewis McManus, promoted to number three began positively, but Gohar’s entrance brought much needed theatre. Every ball it seemed became an act in itself with early lbw shouts against both batters dismissed.

Undeterred, Gohar, who’d had something of a spat with the equally combative wicketkeeper McManus while batting on the first evening, produced one which turned away from the bat to be taken at slip by Helm.

It wasn’t long before he pinned Gus Miller in front with one which went straight on, but Zaib counter-attacked the spin, sweeping his first ball for four before clubbing the left-armer over midwicket. Aggression though almost his downfall when he pulled one from Ferns straight to deep square on 25 only for Ben Geddes to spill the gift.

By this time Vasconcelos’ watchful innings had passed 50 but Ferns gained recompense for Geddes’s spill when he ended the opener’s vigil with a Yorker which trapped him lbw.

When Gohar returned after tea to have Sales brilliantly caught at slip by Sam Robson the lead was only 17.

Zaib though was making the most of his earlier reprieve, moving to 50 complete with six fours, before dispatching a short one from Toby Roland-Jones with the new ball over the ropes at midwicket.

Calvin Harrison stayed over an hour to help add 51 before being one of two victims in an over for Helm, but Ben Sanderson kept Zaib company through to stumps to give Northamptonshire hope heading into day three.

DAY ONE

Ryan Higgins recreated last weekend’s 50-over heroics with another century to help Middlesex take control on a wicket-laden first day of their Rothesay County Championship clash against Northamptonshire.

The all-rounder, whose 100 underpinned the Seaxes’ fightback to beat Leicestershire in Sunday’s Metro Bank One-Day Cup final, came to the rescue again after Northamptonshire seamer Ben Sanderson (four for 68) had reduced his side to 32 for four at Lord’s.

Ben Geddes began the revival with a gutsy 57 before Higgins (115) and Harry Duke – who had shared a partnership of 135 in the final – added a vital 69 to guide Middlesex to 255 all out.

Higgins had earlier taken four for 30, with team-mate Danru Ferns picking up four for 29 as Northamptonshire were flattened for 103, seriously denting their prospects of overhauling Kent to claim the second promotion place in Division Two.

Luke Procter’s decision to bat after winning the toss appeared to backfire rapidly when the captain was pinned leg before by Toby Roland-Jones for a third-ball duck, while Higgins’ opening spell inflicted further damage.

Gus Miller and Saif Zaib fell to Higgins in quick succession and Ferns then picked up a wicket with his maiden delivery at Lord’s, which Calvin Harrison pumped straight to the cover fielder.

Ferns achieved plenty of movement down the slope and also removed Ricardo Vasconcelos, who batted nicely to reach 26 before slashing a widish ball to second slip, but James Sales counter-attacked with a few crisp boundaries.

He and Lewis McManus teamed up to stage a mini-recovery, adding 33 before the latter drove at Tom Helm, who reacted quickly to twist in his follow-through and snag a return catch.

Higgins returned after lunch to dismiss Louis Kimber and Sanderson, while Ferns brought one back to trap Harry Conway in front and the fall of the ninth wicket prompted Sales to start hitting out.

Having slammed Ferns over mid-off for four to lift Northamptonshire’s total into three figures, Sales was yorked for 43 next over – and then it was the home side’s turn to run the gauntlet.

Like their opponents, Middlesex lost a wicket in the first over as Sanderson nipped one back into Sam Robson’s pads and Nathan Fernandes followed in identical fashion, shuffling across soon afterwards.

With Max Holden caught behind off a thin edge and Caleb Falconer becoming Sanderson’s third lbw victim, Middlesex found themselves four down in the ninth over – but Geddes and Higgins revived their fortunes.

Geddes was on the front foot to the seamers, driving to the cover fence three times in one Sanderson over and slamming a short-pitched effort from Procter for four more to take the partnership beyond 50.

Higgins, having survived a sharp caught and bowled chance to Conway, used his feet to good effect as well and the pair had secured a narrow lead by the time Miller’s inswinger zoomed in to hit the top of Geddes’ stumps shortly before tea.

Duke took up the baton in the final session, dispatching Conway for successive fours before Higgins passed his half-century by cutting the seamer to the rope as Middlesex continued to stretch their advantage.

Procter made the breakthrough, bringing himself on to unseat Duke for 28 with a ball that pitched and seamed to hit middle and off, but Higgins embarked on a late assault against Miller, hitting a series of fours to bring up his hundred.

He and Zafar Gohar added 62 for the seventh wicket, with Middlesex advancing beyond 250 before Higgins was finally out, top-edging a slog sweep off Yuzevndra Chahal and Harrison finished off the innings by bowling Helm.