Middlesex 390 (Stoneman 128, Simpson 76, Hollman 58, Harris 5-90) and 45 for 0 beat Glamorgan 214 (Cooke 52, Higgins 4-59, Murtagh 3-58) and 220 (Lloyd 70, Roland-Jones 5-61) by ten wickets
Given that Glamorgan began this final day with a lead of 15 runs and just two wickets to fall, the wonder was that something like a couple of hundred souls turned up to watch the game’s last knockings. Perhaps some were completists, who hadn’t missed a day of Middlesex cricket since Peter Parfitt was a lad; others may have been Yorkshire-born members, who were determined to get their money’s worth; and others again probably thought they would test cricket’s glorious uncertainty to breaking point.
That left Middlesex needing 45 runs to secure the win that takes them up to second in the table and their openers scurried to that target in 5.2 overs, Robson taking three fours in succession off James Harris. Murtagh’s side are now 19 points clear of fourth-placed Derbyshire and 12 ahead of Glamorgan, whose inept batting on the third evening could hardly have been timed worse.
“We had a poor session with the bat and it’s cost us the game, essentially,” said their coach Matthew Maynard. “We lost some poor wickets. There was no momentum and we didn’t try and wrestle any back, so we’re bitterly disappointed. We need to get that right for the last two games if we’ve got any chance of promotion. We need to get maximum points from both games to stand any chance.”
Maynard is correct in every respect, not least in the implicit recognition that the arithmetic of titles and promotion has suddenly become much clearer. For example, Nottinghamshire now need nine points to secure their return to English cricket’s top tier and 21 to win the Second Division title, although that in itself will be a curious achievement given they could well have won the County Championship last season.
Middlesex’s fate is also in their own hands after their first Championship victory since May, although they are nothing like such prohibitive favourites for promotion as Nottinghamshire. Nevertheless they chose a good time to scrap for a win in this match and even two productive draws at Leicester and Worcester in their final matches should be enough.
“I’m really happy with the character we’ve shown and I think the comprehensive nature of the win against a team who had gone above us last game was an important marker,” said their skipper Tim Murtagh. “We’ve done it the tough way, which is really pleasing and we’ve had a couple of big match-winning performances with Mark Stoneman’s hundred and Toby Roland-Jones’ five-for.”
Paul Edwards is a freelance cricket writer. He has written for the Times, ESPNcricinfo, Wisden, Southport Visiter and other publications
Source: ESPN Crickinfo