Sixy Dexy

Middlesex won the toss and put Lancashire in to bat in overcast conditions. There was a small crowd in attendance, and I am not sure whether it was because of the weather, the fact Surrey had a home match at The Oval or because of the exciting conclusion to the Premier League.

 

I was unsure whether play would begin on time, and did not arrive until about 11:15am, so was informed by Jonathan that before I had arrived, silly mid on fielder Eoin Morgan had spurned an opportunity to force an early run out when openers Paul Horton (when on 1) and Luis Reece (when on 0) attempted a single that did not look possible, only for Moggy to be unable to hit with three stumps to aim at, so Horton survived.

 

Tim Murtagh opened the bowling from the Nursery end and Toby Roland-Jones opened from the Pavilion end, and it was TRJ that eventually dismissed Horton, caught in the slips by Ollie Rayner for 12, and Lancs were 19-1. Karl Brown was next in, and got off the mark with a flashy four to the third man boundary. With the score on 38, Steven Finn replaced TRJ and got hit for four by Reece to the Grand stand first ball.

 

With the score on the 47, Reece become the second player dismissed when he edged to John Simpson off Dial M for 23. As Reece was going back to the Pavilion, we were treated to the unusual sight of both Neil Dexter and Chris Rogers climbing into the Mound stand so they could go to the loo! Next into bat was Ashwell Prince. With the score on 62, Prince was dropped in the slips by Rayner off Finn for 1. With the score on 63, Dexter - refreshed from his loo break - replaced Dial M from the Nursery end. After a loud shout for caught behind in the fifth ball of the over, the last ball saw Prince hit his first boundary towards the Mound stand.

With the score on 181, Buttler's luck ran out when he was out to a brilliant diving catch by Rogers at extra cover for 59, giving Dex his fourth wicket. Glen Chapple came in, and saw Lancs through to tea on 190-6.

 

In the 66th over, Lancs' 200 came up with Smith on 28 and Chapple on 11. With the score on 222, Finn took his first wicket by having Chapple caught by TRJ at mid on for 26. At this point, Rayner and Sam Robson decided it was time to jump into the Mound stand for a loo break. This may be a result of the cold conditions, as Jonathan - who is loath to missing any play - earlier had to visit the loo during play.

 

Kyle Hogg was now at the crease. After the weather had been cold for most of the day, the sun came out around this time and thus increased the temperature. With the new ball imminent, Rayner was finally introduced to the attack in the 76th over, and bowled two tidy overs for three runs. The new ball was taken after 80.2 overs with the score 248-7, and the following ball Hogg edged a Murtagh delivery to fourth slip, only to see the chance put down. Smith brought up his 50 off 118 balls with seven fours to take the score to 252-7 after 84.3 overs. Dex returned to the attack, and eight runs later he brought up his second first-class five-for by having Hogg lbw for 18. Four balls later, Kerrigan edged to Rayner for 0, and Dex had bettered the 5-27 he took v Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge in 2013.

 

With the score 260-9 and seven overs left in the day, it seemed possible that Middlesex may have to face a couple of nerve-wracking overs before the close. Smith was keen to shield new batsman Kyle Jarvis from the strike, and we were keen to stop him achieving that. Eventually, Smith was bowled by Finn for 59, and perhaps fortunately, there were not enough overs left in the day for us to come out to start our innings.

 

Myself and Jonathan stayed to applaud Dex leading the team back into the Pavilion after he finished with figures of 26-10-63-6. It has been a good few weeks for him, after the birth of daughter Holly, scoring 72 not out to navigate us to a memorable win v Yorkshire and now his career best bowling figures.

 

It looked like a flat wicket, and all of the bowlers struggled except for Dex. All in all, a good day for the Middle. Let's hope we can go on tomorrow to get a big lead.