Middlesex went into the final day in complete control of the match, with an early declaration a certainty. sulIt didn’t take long in coming either, with only 45 runs added to the overnight total. Nevertheless, Northamptonshire’s top order once again faltered and they soon found themselves in an all to familiar position with the score at 43-3.

Mr reliable was on hand though as David Sales made an important 90 not out to steer Northants to safety sharing in a stand of 169 with Tom Huggins.

A nasty nose injury to Ben Scott summed up the afternoon for Middlesex, which should mean that David Nash gets a stab behind the sticks at Canterbury this week, in a game that could decide second place.

The final word goes to Sven Koenig though, who stepped off the Lords playing field as a Middlesex player for the last time, after being given the final over of the home season. His steadiness at the top of the innings may not be what it was when he joined in 2002, but he is still a valuable member of the squad and will be missed next year. We wish him all the best in the future and, of course, in the game at Canterbury this week!

DAY 3:

Northants were relgated at Lord's today as Middx closed in on securing a win to keep their hopes of second place alive. A Northants collapse saw them go from 210/4 to 282 all out, Ben Hutton and Stuart Clark with 3 wickets each. Sven Koenig hit a 50 in reply as Middx reached 167/3 at close.

DAY 2:

Ben Scott secured a madien century as Middlesex reach 425 all out at Lord's today. Scott was 101* in a day which also saw 40 from Simon Cook and good work from Chris Peploe and Stuart Clark. The Northants reply got off to a bad start as they were reduced to 12/3 early on but Afzaal (62) refused to lay down and die as Northants reached 139/4 at close.

Day 1:

A fine stand of 156 for the 3rd wicket between Owais Shah and Ed Joyce resurrected Middlesex’s lowly start to the Northamptonshire match at Lords. The openers fell cheaply, leaving the ‘sex reeling on 14-2, but the fine stand, together with a half century from Paul Weekes saw us to 280-6 at stumps.

Summer was making a brief return on the first day of Middlesex’s final home match of the year, with the sun shining down at Lords. Unfortunately, it didn’t shine on the departing Sven Koenig as the South African was one of two early casualties in his penultimate innings for Middlesex.

Shah and Joyce did put us back on track as Ace continued in his rich vein of form and Joyce made a welcome return to form. Weekes half century and an unbeaten 31 from Ben Scott aided our progress further as we reached 280-6 at stumps, although many will still argue that it was Northants’ day. They were gracious to Paul Rofe and Johann Louw for this start, both of whom took 3 scalps each.

Please click here to see a scorecard for this match.

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