Middlesex batsmen suffer at hands of champions Yorkshire

Middlesex’s batsmen were blown away by a Yorkshire side who celebrated retaining their County Championship title.

In a stunning start to a near-perfect day for the visitors, Ryan Sidebottom began the charge by incredibly taking three wickets in the first over.

Utilising overhead conditions and the Lord’s slope to devastating effect, he trapped Paul Stirling lbw, found Nick Compton’s edge and then forced Dawid Malan to play on – all before Middlesex had got off the mark.

Stevie Eskinazi, called up from the second XI to make his first-class debut, made just four before he became Sidebottom’s fourth victim.

Sam Robson (26) survived the carnage and put on 30 with Neil Dexter (14), but Tim Bresnan replaced Sidebottom from the Pavilion End and went on to remove both.

James Franklin and John Simpson stemmed the flow of wickets with a stand of 37 only for the wicket-keeper to get himself out from the last ball before lunch, caught behind off spinner James Middlebrook.

That left Middlesex 92-7 and Yorkshire wasted little time after the interval to polish things off, Bresnan seeing off Franklin and Toby Roland-Jones in the same over before Sidebottom aptly provided the killer blow.

Denying Middlesex a batting bonus point mathematically killed off their title bid, and once Nottinghamshire were bowled out just before tea against Durham, Yorkshire were confirmed as champions, their players and staff hugging on the visitors’ balcony.

By that stage, the visitors had taken advantage of more helpful batting conditions, with under-pressure England opener Adam Lyth looking fluent until trapped lbw by Toby Roland-Jones for 25.

Roland-Jones also accounted for Gary Ballance, for a seven-ball duck, but Alex Lees (39) and Andrew Gale took Yorkshire into a first-innings lead before tea.

Skipper Gale was motoring towards a well-deserved century when he edged Neil Dexter to Sam Robson at slip for 98, one of three wickets the Leicestershire-bound all-rounder picked up in the evening session.

A Middlesex fightback checked Yorkshire’s progress but they still closed 132 runs ahead at the end of a hectic day.

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