DAY 1
A combination of rain and bad light meant that no play was possible on the first day of the LV= County Championship match between Middlesex and Worcestershire at Lord's.
DAY 2
Only 40.3 overs were possible on the second day of the LV= County Championship match between Middlesex and Worcestershire at Lord’s, with the hosts on 148-2 at stumps.
Worcestershire made one change from the match against Nottinghamshire as Matt Pardoe replaced Alexei Kervezee. Daryl Mitchell won the toss and put Middlesex into bat under grey skies and the England captain, Andrew Strauss, had a life when, on 5, he was dropped by Michael Klinger at third slip. Strauss and Sam Robson survived the new ball attack of Alan Richardson and David Lucas and their opening partnership had reached 80 when Strauss was lbw off Aneesh Kapil for 49.
A run later the players went off for bad light at 12:30pm and although an early lunch was taken immediately both the bad light and a little bit of drizzle hung over Lord’s during the early part of the afternoon. Eventually, after taking an early tea, the players were back on at 3:30pm, with Robson getting to his 50 off 62 balls, before the bad light returned and the players went off the field at 3:50pm.
Play resumed 15 minutes later and Richardson got Worcestershire’s second wicket when Robson edged to Klinger at third slip for 59, with the score on 125. Joe Denly and Chris Rogers then added 23 more runs before they were once again off for bad light at 5pm and an hour later play was abandoned for the day.
DAY 3
Worcestershire endured a tough third day at Lord’s as they ended on 45-2 in their first innings and trail Middlesex by 282 runs.
The hosts began the day on 148-2, with Joe Denly striking Alan Richardson’s first two deliveries of the morning to the boundary but, soon afterwards, Chris Rogers departed when he edged behind to Ben Scott off David Lucas for 9. Richardson then got in on the act by removing both Dawid Malan, edging to Vikram Solanki at first slip for 0, and then Neil Dexter, next ball, shouldered arms to a ball that nipped back, and removed his off stump, to leave Middlesex on 172-5. Denly got to his fifty off 94 balls, with his ninth boundary, but then the weather once again intervened just after 12:15pm and an early lunch was taken, with the score on 191.
Light rain meant that play was delayed after lunch but it eventually stopped and play resumed at 2:45pm, with Middlesex going on to 210 when Richardson got his third wicket of the day by getting John Simpson to edge behind to Scott for 14. Then Denly and Gareth Berg attacked as they put on 88 for the seventh-wicket in 21 overs, with Denly getting to his hundred off 153 balls, with 17 fours.
The partnership ended after tea when Berg got an inside edge to Scott for 36 to give the ever-reliable Richardson his fifth wicket of the innings. Denly continued his aggression by pulling Richardson for 6 and when Middlesex declared on 327-7 Denly was unbeaten on 134 off 197 balls, with 19 fours and 1 six, and Richardson again was the pick of the County’s bowlers, with 5-89 off 33 overs.
Worcestershire had 29 overs to bat and Michael Klinger was given a life when on 0 he was dropped by Andrew Strauss at first slip. Klinger and Daryl Mitchell had taken Worcestershire’s score to 39 when the first wicket went down as Mitchell clipped a Tim Murtagh delivery straight to Dexter at mid-wicket for 14. With the light fading the visitors lost their second wicket in the 17th over when Toby Roland-Jones got some extra bounce, which found the shoulder of Klinger’s bat, and the Australian was caught by Sam Robson in the gully for 17. Immediately afterwards the players went off for bad light and eventually play was abandoned for the day.
The first task for Worcestershire on the final day is to ensure they get to 178 to avoid the follow-on and then go on to accumulate batting points, which has eluded Worcestershire so far this season.
DAY 4
Worcestershire slumped to a 132 run defeat on the final day of their LV= County Championship match against Middlesex at Lord’s.
Before the start of the day’s play Worcestershire declared on their overnight score of 45-2 and Middlesex forfeited their second innings to leave the visitors requiring 283 runs to win off a minimum of 96 overs.
Daryl Mitchell and Michael Klinger started well as they took the score to 21 after 8 overs but Tim Murtagh got the breakthrough for Middlesex when Klinger, shouldering arms to a ball that nipped back, was lbw for 12. Murtagh then struck again in his next over when Mitchell edged to Dawid Malan at second slip for 9 and then soon afterwards Worcestershire lost two more wickets, as Vikram Solanki (11) and Moeen Ali (1) both edged to Andrew Strauss at first slip, to leave the visitors deep in trouble at 35-4.
James Cameron and Matt Pardoe tried to get the Worcestershire innings going, with Cameron, in particular, striking a couple of back-foot drives to the boundary. Their fifth-wicket partnership had reached 35 when Pardoe edged behind to John Simpson off Gareth Berg for 14 and when the players went off for lunch Worcestershire had gone on to 73-5.
After lunch Cameron and Ben Scott each struck two boundaries before Toby Roland-Jones struck by trapping Cameron lbw for 30, with the score on 89, and then, in the next two overs, Scott was bowled by Murtagh for 13 and David Lucas was caught by Malan at second slip off Roland-Jones for 3 to leave Worcestershire on 96-8.
Aneesh Kapil and Richard Jones briefly frustrated Middlesex, with Jones sweeping Malan to the Grandstand for 6, by putting on 54 for the ninth wicket but then Steve Finn took the final two wickets as Jones was brilliantly caught by Neil Dexter in the gully for 32 and, 3 balls later, bowled Alan Richardson for 0, to end the match just before 3pm, and Worcestershire were all out for 150 in 47.5 overs, with Kapil unbeaten on 21.
WORCESTERSHIRE (45-2d and 150) lost to MIDDLESEX (327-7d & 2nd Inns Forfeit) by 132 runs
