Jayant Yadav luggage 5 as Middlesex retain management of Division One standing
Lancashire 413 (Vilas 124, Wells 97, Bell 91, Yadav 5-131) drew with Middlesex 194 (Robson 86, Baily 3-38) and 160 for 3 (Davies 65*, Eskinazi 26*)
After three days through which that they had been outplayed by Lancashire, Middlesex’s batters comfortably secured the draw that sustains their hopes of avoiding relegation from Division One of the LV= Insurance County Championship.
When the gamers finally shook arms at 4:50pm on the Emirates Old Trafford outfield, the guests had been 160 for 3, with the highly-rated Jack Davies unbeaten on 65, his maiden first-class fifty and Stevie Eskinazi on 26 not out.
In the primary hour of play, Lancashire scored 71 runs for the lack of their final 5 wickets earlier than being dismissed for 413. The first batter to go was George Balderson, who was caught behind by John Simpson off Ryan Higgins for 12, however three of the remaining 4 wickets had been taken by the off-spinner Jayant Yadav, who marked his Middlesex debut by taking 5 for 131 in Lancashire’s second innings.
The solely disappointing dismissal from the house perspective was that of George Bell, who was stumped by Simpson off Jayant for a career-best 91, 9 wanting what would have been his maiden first-class century. Otherwise, the accent was on Lancashire scoring fast runs previous to a declaration and Middlesex choosing up two extra bowling bonus factors to assist their battle towards relegation.
Left with a first-innings deficit of 219 and 50 minutes to bat earlier than lunch, Middlesex misplaced Sam Robson within the fifth over of their second innings when the opener failed to deal with Tom Bailey’s bounce and edged a waist-high catch to Will Williams at third slip. Undaunted, Mark Stoneman and Joe Cracknell took their facet safely to the primary interval.
Within an hour of the resumption, nevertheless, each batters had been dismissed in virtually an identical style – lbw on the entrance foot to the left-arm spin Tom Hartley – although the left-handed Stoneman might have had extra of a case that the ball which dismissed him for 17 struck his pad outdoors the road of the off stump, a defence that would not be provided for Cracknell, who made 33 in 93 minutes.
The response of Davies and Eskinazi to reverses that left their facet on 71 for 3 was to calmly reset the innings and take Middlesex to 105 for 3 at tea. Lancashire made restricted use of Luke Wells’ leg-spin and even gave Bailey an over of off-spin earlier than the interval however to no avail.
The cricket after tea was essentially the most desultory of the match. Davies and Eskinazi batted in fully untroubled style and it was no shock when the gamers shook arms on the earliest alternative.