Match scorecard<\/a><\/p>\nToby Roland-Jones rolled back the years with a superb four-wicket haul that drove Middlesex into the ascendency against Worcestershire on day two of an intriguing Division Two clash at New Road.<\/p>\n
The veteran enjoyed a vintage day out on a surface that kept the seamers interested, returning figures of 4-41 as the away side bowled the Pears out for 265.<\/p>\n
Matthew Waite’s punchy 69 was the biggest display of defiance for the home side in their pursuit of 339, but the hosts lost wickets in clusters as Middlesex kept control.<\/p>\n
Sebastian Morgan and Tom Helm played handy supporting roles, sharing five wickets between them as they helped their side take control of the game with a lead of 79 runs heading into the third day.<\/p>\n
Middlesex enjoyed the brighter start to day two, courtesy of Sebastian Morgan’s excellent lower-order rearguard that helped take his side past 300 in the process of registering an assured half-century.<\/p>\n
The wickets of Roland-Jones (4) and Helm (21) curtailed the away side’s innings, having added 48 to the overnight score.<\/p>\n
Worcestershire’s pursuit of 339 started in the worst possible fashion, with openers Jake Libby and Dan Lategan both wilting for single-figure scores as the visitors stole a march on the Pears.<\/p>\n
Libby was victim of a gorgeous ball from Helm that caught his edge on the way through to Cracknell, shortly before Roland-Jones snagged Lategan when the teenager offered no shot to a ball destined for off-stump.<\/p>\n
Brett D’Oliveira and Gareth Roderick led the fightback from 18-2 after lunch, showing patience as they defended resolutely in the early exchanges.<\/p>\n
The experienced duo added 52 for the third wicket, but Roland-Jones claimed three wickets in successive overs as the visitors took control.<\/p>\n
D’Oliveira mistimed a pull shot that was top-edged to Falconer before Roderick saw his 86-ball defiance ended when the former England seamer uprooted his off-stump with a peach of a ball from the Diglis End.<\/p>\n
Roland-Jones strengthened the visitors’ grip on the contest when he had debutant Henry Cullen caught behind without scoring, as Worcestershire slumped to 80-5.<\/p>\n
Waite came together with Ethan Brookes to set about a middle-order rebuild, playing a handful of commanding offensive shots whilst Brookes soaked up the pressure from spinner Zafar Gohar midway through the afternoon.<\/p>\n
Waite wore a nasty short ball into his throat two short of his half-century but dug deep to register a fourth fifty of the summer with his promotion to number five paying dividends shortly after, avoiding a mix-up with his partner when a run-out opportunity was missed by the visitors.<\/p>\n
Worcestershire could breathe a little easier at 152-5 as the crucial partnership for the fifth wicket reached 72 at the interval, but the visitors re-asserted control soon after tea.<\/p>\n
Two wickets in as many overs courtesy of youngster Morgan tore apart the partnership, with Waite’s mistimed hook shot finding the grateful hands of Roland-Jones at long-leg on 69, before Brookes edged behind for a dogged 29 from 90 balls.<\/p>\n
With two set batters now out of the equation, Helm returned to remove Beyers Swanepoel for a breezy 34, before Morgan grabbed a third late on as Worcestershire were bowled out for 265, still trailing by 74 runs.<\/p>\n
Middlesex openers Sam Robson and Ben Geddes saw through the last two overs of the day to finish 5-0, set to start day three in the box seat.<\/p>\n
Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, New Road, Worcester (day two) Middlesex 339: Du Plooy 85, Robson 70; Allison…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637548,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[1721,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-637547","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cricket","tag-cricket","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637547","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637547"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637547\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637547"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637547"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637547"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}