At a school ground in Northwood that has seen its share of promising youngsters, it was the oldest seamer in the country who first stole the day – and a younger one who hinted he might one day inherit the stage.
By stumps at Merchant Taylors’ School, Middlesex had one hand on the game and a boot on Lancashire’s throat. They closed 116-2 in their second innings, Max Holden blazing an unbeaten 50, and held an overall lead of 212 in this Division Two contest.
Earlier, the day had belonged to James Anderson. Or at least, it felt that way for an hour.
Anderson’s spell from another era
The 41-year-old, calf strapped and workload carefully managed, ambled in down the hill from the Benham End and turned back the clock. For more than an hour the ball might as well have been attached to a length of fishing line. Middlesex batters poked, groped and swished at thin air as Anderson stitched together a spell of classic, unforgiving seam bowling.
The irony was brutal. After all that skill and control, his solitary wicket of the morning came from a misbehaving ball that refused to play by his rules. Luke Hollman, 54 overnight and still looking secure, saw one scuttle low, skid under his bat and cannon into the stumps. No artistry, just a grubber.
But the real damage came in the pressure he created. As Anderson locked one end down, the middle order cracked at the other.
George Balderson struck with the first ball of his spell, trapping Ben Geddes lbw just as the right-hander looked set. Ben Walkden then ripped through the middle stumps of Harry Duke and Zafar Gohar in the space of three deliveries, a mini-collapse that left Middlesex tottering and their earlier platform squandered.
Ryan Higgins, dropped on six at slip, fought back with a resourceful 44, mixing solid defence with inventive strokeplay, including a ramp over keeper Matty Hurst’s head off Walkden. Toby Roland-Jones muscled three straight boundaries back over the bowler, and Tom Helm launched the only six of the innings in a burst of late defiance. Even so, Middlesex were dismissed on the stroke of lunch for 247, still short of a batting point and feeling they had left runs out there.
Helm, Higgins and Sharma hit back
If the morning belonged to Lancashire’s attack, the afternoon was a sharp reversal.
Helm needed only a handful of overs to tilt the match. Keaton Jennings, pinned lbw for one, went early. Harry Singh followed, beaten by a brutish delivery that leapt from just short of a length and took the edge through to the keeper. Marcus Harris became yet another lbw victim, the fifth of the game, and Lancashire were suddenly 35-4 when Naavya Sharma uprooted Rocky Flintoff’s off stump.
The Red Rose were wilting.
Hurst, promoted to open and not a natural in the role, dug in. He survived an early appeal for a catch behind and wore a blow on the grill from a Helm bouncer, but refused to flinch. He grafted, left well, and slowly began to stitch something resembling a recovery.
Arav Shetty joined him and briefly changed the mood, hooking Helm over long leg and into the beer tent, a shot that drew a murmur around the ground. Helm’s response was swift and clinical: Shetty nicked behind and the partnership was broken.
Walkden, already influential with the ball, added a neat 28 with the bat, peppered with boundaries, but Sharma’s late movement did for him too. The young seamer then produced another beauty to castle Hurst for 46, ending the one innings that had truly threatened Middlesex’s grip.
From there, Balderson tried to marshal the tail, but Helm and Higgins cleaned up the rest. Lancashire were hustled out for 151, conceding a first-innings deficit of 96 and surrendering the initiative they had seized so impressively in the morning.
Helm finished with 4-40, Higgins 3-39, Sharma 3-39. Between them, they turned a tight contest into one Middlesex could now dominate.
Holden’s late assault swings the day
Set the task of driving home that advantage, Middlesex began their second innings with a wobble. Sam Robson’s lean run stretched on when Tom Bailey uprooted his off stump, the opener’s frustrations deepening. Hollman, so composed the previous evening, saw his stumps spreadeagled by Balderson.
Two down, still not far in front, Middlesex could easily have drifted into survival mode. Holden refused.
Having been on a pair, he counter-punched with intent, batting as if determined to seize the game before Lancashire’s attack could settle. He scored at better than a run a ball, peppering gaps, punishing anything overpitched and forcing field changes that told their own story about the pressure he was applying.
By the final over of the day he surged to a thrilling 50, unbeaten and bristling with authority, dragging the game away from Lancashire and into territory that already looks dangerous for the visitors.
As the players walked off under the soft evening light, Anderson’s morning masterclass and Sharma’s afternoon statement sat side by side in the memory. One legend still bending the ball to his will, one England Lion hinting he might be ready to chase that standard in the years ahead.
For now, though, the scoreboard is blunt: Middlesex lead by 212, with eight wickets in hand. Lancashire need something special on day three, or this match may already be slipping beyond their reach.
