County Championship: Middlesex respond well to Lancashire's big total at Lord's
Last updated on .From the section Counties
| Specsavers County Championship Division One, Lord's |
| Middlesex v Lancashire, day two |
| Lancashire 513: Petersen 191, Hameed 89, Livingstone 58, Croft 46; Roland-Jones 4-122 |
| Middlesex 146-1: Gubbins 71*, Eskinazi 43* |
| Lancashire lead by 367 runs |
| Lancashire 3 pts, Middlesex 1 pt |
| Match scorecard |
Lancashire's Alviro Petersen fell nine short of a double century as Lancashire laboured to a big score at Lord's.
But Nick Gubbins and Stevie Eskinazi responded well for Middlesex, with an unbroken stand of 87 to close on 146-1.
Gubbins was unbeaten on 71, while young South African Eskinazi made 43 on only his second Championship appearance.
Earlier, Division One leaders Lancashire moved on from 298-3 to 513, Petersen's 191 being backed by in-form Liam Livingstone's rapid run-a-ball 58.
Captain Steven Croft, who again kept wicket in the absence of the injured Alex Davies and England absentee Jos Buttler, weighed in with 46.
Toby Roland-Jones (4-122) and off-spinner Ollie Rayner (4-120), who removed Croft with his first ball of the day to a mistimed reverse sweep, got the lion's share of the wickets for Middlesex.
But it was generally hard going for the Middlesex seamers on a benign pitch on which Petersen, 105 overnight, timed the ball impeccably to help promoted Lancashire reach their biggest total of the season.
Fresh from six wickets on his debut against Warwickshire last week, teenage leg-spinner Matt Parkinson made the breakthrough for Lancashire with only his eighth ball when Sam Robson (21) edged to slip.
But, from then on, the Lancashire attack found it equally hard work.
Middlesex off-spinner Ollie Rayner told BBC Radio London:
"The wickets have been dry this season, which is odd considering how wet it's been. There hasn't been an awful lot of pace in them at all. It spun slowly so it's tough.
"You just have to build pressure and try and get wickets that way rather than blasting teams out.
"The boys batted superbly after a long time on your feet in the field. For the openers to concentrate as well as they have done was an outstanding effort although we know there is a lot of work still to do.
Lancashire captain Steven Croft told BBC Radio Manchester:
"We don't want the game to fizzle out - there's a massive carrot for us to win a Championship game at Lord's.
"We expect to be in the field all day but that doesn't bother us. Our two main seamers, Neil Wagner and Kyle Jarvis, haven't bowled lots of overs in recent weeks so they are raring to go.
"The wicket is slow but there's a bit in it for the bowlers and Matt Parkinson did well when he came on. He's confident as a person and he landed it in good areas straight away."
