Middlesex v Northamptonshire: County Championship Division Two – http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Northamptonshire-c824’s First Innings
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/England-c56013 on Friday, August 12, 2011.
It was a decent performance from the home side, considering they were put into bat by the opposition’s skipper http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Andrew-Hall-c1040. The ball did do a few tricks, but the batsmen were up to it.
The pitch was very good for the batsmen on the first day’s play and it improved with the passage of time. This allowed the Northamptonshire team to take a useful first innings lead in the match.
The visitors ended up with 399 runs with the highest score of 87 coming from opening batsman http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Mal-Loye-c1879.
Northamptonshire’s start was an impressive one, as the openers http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Stephen-Peters-c2574 and Loye batted superbly. The pair put together a spectacular opening partnership of 158 runs, putting the opposition on the back foot.
Peters was the first man to be dismissed in the innings, but after collecting a solid 75 runs at the top of the order. The stylish opener struck 12 boundaries in his impressive outing.
Just six runs later, Rob White was also dismissed. The first-drop player failed to make most of the conditions, getting out for 4 runs in his short stay at the crease.
Loye was the next wicket to fall in the visitors’ innings. The seasoned campaigner looked impressive, but would have been disappointed to miss out on a century. He got out after collecting 87 runs with the help of 15 stylish boundaries.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Robin-James-Boyd-Moss-c86323 Newton and Hall were unable to capitalise on the starts they got to their respective innings. They got out after adding 29 and 23 runs to the total.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/James-Middlebrook-c1651, who scored a run-a-ball 16 in his short outing.
Wicketkeeper batsman Niall O’Brien was not left with many partners at the other end, but the Irishman played an impressive knock. He collected 50 runs off 88 balls with the help of six classy fours.
O’Brien got some solid support from the lower-order players http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Lee-Daggett-c1835. Both batsmen stayed at the crease for longer times and ended up with 23 and 24 respectively.
http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Luke-Evans-c73277 was the last man to be dismissed in the Northamptonshire innings, as the team was all out for 399 runs. The team would have liked a few more runs, but would have still been pleased with a lead of 82 runs.
Middlesex’s http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Steven-Paul-Crook-c91337 did a fabulous job for his side, picking up 5 wickets in the innings.
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