Middlesex 221 (Tongue 3-49)and 287 for 6 dec (Malan 124, Gubbins 91) beat Worcestershire 156 (Helm 5-36) and 225 (Whiteley 60, Mitchell 51, Murtagh 6-51) by 127 runs
Veteran paceman Tim Murtagh steered Middlesex to their first Specsavers County Championship victory of the campaign, a 127-run success against Worcestershire, with a six-wicket haul at Blackfinch New Road.
Murtagh, who is 38 in August, struck twice before lunch, produced another triple breakthrough after the resumption and he went on to finish with figures of 6 for 51 and a match analysis of 35-16-76-8. Worcestershire, who had been set a 353 target after Middlesex declared overnight, were bowled out for 225 in 73.3 overs.
It was the perfect return to county action for Murtagh after his recent international commitments with Ireland and the 33rd five-wicket haul of his career.
Middlesex fully deserved their 20-point haul and fit again captain Dawid Malan produced the game’s outstanding batting performance with scores of 45 and 124 on a wicket where the ball nipped around over all four days.
For Worcestershire, opener Daryl Mitchell made a return to form for the home side with a defiant 129-ball half-century and Ross Whiteley also produced strong resistance with a late order fifty. But for the home side it was a second successive setback following the defeat at Lancashire and they were second best with bat and ball for the majority of the game.
Middlesex declared at their overnight total of 287 for 6 with John Simpson unbeaten on 30 and Toby Roland-Jones 11 not out.
Murtagh took the new ball and struck in successive overs. Tom Fell was undone by a ball which bounced on him and nicked to Sam Robson at first slip with 5 on the board. Then George Rhodes departed lbw for a duck to a Murtagh delivery which nipped back sharply.
Mitchell and Callum Ferguson tried to rebuild the innings and the latter needed 21 balls to get off the mark before reeling off a succession of boundaries. They steered Worcestershire to 91 for 2 at lunch but Murtagh came back into the attack after the resumption to re-assert a position of authority for Middlesex.
Ferguson went for a drive to his first delivery of the afternoon from Murtagh and was pouched by Steve Eskinazi who held onto a head high catch at second slip. Two balls later Riki Wessels pushed forward and only succeeded in finding Malan in the gully region.
Mitchell went to his half-century – containing nine fours – with a single off Murtagh but in his next over dragged a delivery on to his stumps.
Murtagh had Whiteley dropped on 11 at third slip and the left hander profited from his let-off, mixing defence with some trademark attacking strokes.
The wickets continued to tumble at the other end with Ben Cox and Ed Barnard both caught behind off Tom Helm and Toby Roland-Jones respectively. Victim number six for Murtagh came when he defeated the defensive push of Worcestershire skipper Joe Leach who was bowled.
Whiteley’s half-century came up from 90 deliveries with seven fours. But the end came quickly as Josh Tongue was taken at second slip off Helm and finally Whiteley, whose 112-ball knock contained nine fours, edged James Harris to first slip with 22.3 overs remaining.
Source: ESPN Crickinfo