Fee Fi Fo Fum, Tim Smells Blood

Jonathan Winsky negotiates the vast crowds (sadly, on the tube, not at Lord's) to report on a fascinating but shortened Day 2. Reading Jonathan's description of the 15 minutes before lunch will no doubt remind many readers (like myself, perhaps a little older than Jonathan) of the sheer joy of the unexpected in cricket. Many thanks, Jonathan.

I departed for Lord's at about 10:00. For some reason both the Metropolitan and Jubilee Lines were crowded and I had to stand all the way from Preston Road to St. John's Wood. I arrived in my seat six rows back in the Mound Stand at about 10:50.

Overnight, it was honours even as Middlesex closed day one on 280-6, so their realistic aim for the morning session was to get to 350 (four batting points) while Essex were looking to reach 9 wickets before the completion of 120 overs (three bowling points).

Not long after the start of play Gareth Berg reached his third 50 in as many innings following on from his 57* and 98 at Canterbury. He and Murali Kartik shared in a 45-run partnership for the 7th wicket before Ryan ten Doeschate got Kartik to fine edge the ball to James Foster after making a handy 22, which took the score to 307-7.

This brought Tim Murtagh to the crease and he contributed 20 with all his runs coming in boundaries. He hit 3 fours in one over off Graham Napier before he fell lbw to Danish Kaneria, which meant there were 7.4 overs left for Middlesex to get 10 more runs for a fourth batting point and Essex to get 1 more wicket for a third bowling point.

However, in the following over ten Doeschate dismissed Berg lbw (to much relief from the Essex team) for 66 and thus the bowlers had achieved their target, so the only question left was if Middlesex, with Steve Finn and Alan Richardson in the middle, could get the 10 runs they still required for their target.

And the answer was yes as thanks to four leg-byes and a couple of 1s and 2s the 350 was reached with about 2 overs to spare. The wicket that ended the Middlesex innings of 356 just after 12:30 had a Scandinavian feel to it. If you can excuse the pun Danish had Finn stumped for 7, with Finn marginally (if anything) out of his ground.

Now for the main story of the day. There were about 15 minutes left in the session for Essex to bat, so out strode John Maunders and Alastair Cook. Cook and Ravi Bopara have been told to go and score runs for Essex by the England camp, but a certain Tim Murtagh clearly had other ideas.

James Whitaker from the England camp was present today in the hope that Cook and Bopara could get loads of runs for the Essex boys. Whitaker then got his pen and notebook out of his pocket in anticipation of a long innings by both players. Within the space of 10 minutes the notebook was back in his pocket with one name clearly marked 'Super Timmy Murtagh'.

First of all Super Tim trapped Cook lbw for 4 and then two overs later, Bopara also fell victim to Dial M, caught in the slips by Murali Kartik for 1 at which point lunch was taken with Essex 15-2.

Better off bowling?

At this point I took my normal casual walk round the ground to see who I could bump into and I was delighted to see Aunty Janet who said hello.

With the bell going it was back to my seat, a quick bite and a drink and it was time for play to recommence.

Soon after lunch, Murtagh was at it again as Maunders, having scored 23 out of the team total of 30, fell victim to an away-swinger that was nicked to Eoin Morgan at slip, and Middlesex had their first bowling point.

And Murtagh was not finished there as in his following over Mark Pettini was out lbw for 1 and Essex were in disarray on 32-4 with all their top order batsmen back in the Pavilion.

Rain stopped play for about 45 minutes, at which point Murtagh's figures were 7-4-9-4. I was surprised by the rain as it was supposed to be cloudy and overcast but dry.

Matt Walker and James Foster steadied the ship by taking the score to 86-4 at tea with Murtagh, thanks to the lunch and rain stoppages, able to bowl 13 straight overs from the Nursery End.

After tea, Walker and Foster added a further 25 runs to take their 5th wicket partnership to 75* before play was initially suspended due to bad light, but eventually abandoned for the day due to heavy rain with Essex on 107-4, trailing by 249 with 6 wickets remaining. Walker has been the more watchful one in the partnership with an overnight score of 35* off 123 balls, whereas Foster has scored 40* off 76 balls.

Middlesex are certainly in the driving seat and hopefully with a good night's rest Super Tim can be at it again tomorrow in the anticipation that he can get some early wickets and that Essex might follow on.