By Big Harvey
July 29 2012

BIG HARV REPORTS ON A TENSE DAY FOR THE MIDDLE

One drawback with my chosen accommodation, the 14^th Century Lumley Castle, is its counterintuitive layout. After breakfasting on local Craster kippers it took me fully 15 minutes to find my way back to my room! The latter was unsignposted and only accessible via an obscure unmarked spiral staircase accessed through a door that looked as if it could just as easily have been that of a broom cupboard. In other respects it is a fine choice of digs. I slept soundly, unmolested by the ghosts that allegedly spooked Shane Watson so badly when he stayed here that he ended up sleeping on Brett Lee's floor. Still, for all I know, all kinds of spectres could have emerged from the walls during the night, or tugged at my duvet. After yesterday's 2.30 am alarm call and 4 am start it was going to take more than the activities of spectral priests or an apparition of the murdered Lily Lumley to wake me up.

 Middlesex resumed on 144/7, a lead of 42 runs with the Iceman on 30. On what looked yesterday to be a decidedly dodgy pitch, this was a strong but very far from unassailable position.

 Iceman was joined by Murts who batted out the rest of Borthwick's over. It was a slow start, once again with the bowlers looking on top. Stokes came around the wicket to Murts and his 4^th ball delivered in that fashion struck Murts a nasty blow on the helmet.

 It was not until 33 minutes into the day's play that the first boundary was struck, with Murts driving Rushworth, who had replaced Borthwick, to long-off. Durham had been trying all morning to get the ball changed, since it was not swinging as much as yesterday. The boundary prompted them to try again and this time the umpires relented.

 The replacement wasn't swinging much either, and the scoreboard was kept ticking over until The Iceman fell for 37, edging a ball from Thorp that darted away off the seam and taken by the keeper Richardson in front of 1^st slip. 177/8.

 TRJ's arrival at the crease was the cue for Onions to be introduced into the attack. He didn't initially appear to be as lithe or moving as freely as yesterday, but pitched one up to Murts (25) and induced an edge through to the keeper.

 Without adding to the total of 185, Finny followed in in Onions' next over, also caught behind, to wrap up the innings and deny us any batting points. 83 still looked a useful lead though.

 Murts opened the bowling with Finny whose first ball was a horrible leg-side wide of the kind normally associated with Durham's own Steve Harmison! It got worse as Smith lofted a short one for 6 over backward square. There was a man out there, but he'd have had to have been a few rows back to have a chance. It must have gone to his head though, as next ball he was out fishing outside off-stump for 7, with Ollie taking the catch above his head. 12/1.

 Stoneman (14) was next to fall, caught behind off a very thick outside edge indeed. He still stood his ground until the bemused umpire raised his finger. He is quite entitled to do that of course, so I'm all in favour of umpires raising their fingers straight away however obviously out a player is.

 At 24/2 off just 4.2 overs, things were happening fast and furiously. Stokes and Muchall took Durham through to lunch on 32/2.

 Finny resumed after lunch with his first ball resulting in a big appeal for LBW, the second uprooting Muchall's off-stump for just 4. 32/3, and Durham were really looking down the barrel. Stokes and Benkenstein looked to carry on the positive approach, the latter looking a different player from his 1^st innings efforts.

 TRJ was introduced, and despite an expensive start, he accounted for Stokes (23), who got in a mess to a short ball and skied it to Denly at gully. 68/4.

 The reintroduction of Murts into the attack, together with a more defensive field slowed the run rate to a crawl. Tension was mounting, as much depended on this partnership. The previously aggressive Berkenstein was becalmed and looking like he did in the first innings. The Iceman in particular had him in all kinds of trouble, and eventually he cracked, edging Murts to AC at 1^st slip for 37. 99/5.

 TRJ eventually found his rhythm, which had been somewhat elusive up until now,, pinning Collingwood (14) LBW, and clean bowling Richardson (8) in successive overs. At 119/7, a lead of just 36, the fat lady was warming up. However her preparations were immediately cut short by a rain interruption.

 Tea was taken, and on the resumption at 4.30, Borthwick and Thorp  failed to follow the script and went on the offensive. The 50 partnership - Durham's first in the match , brought up with overthrows to the boundary, took  only a shade over 20 minutes. By the time Thorp's cameo came to an end, caught behind off Murts for 36, Durham had progressed to 179-8.

 Onions (4) stuck around for a short while, his lease terminated when he lost his off-stump to Finny bringing Rushworth to the crease at 186/9. Borthwick showed how much faith he had in his partner with a huge heave and miss off Finny that was not so much agricultural as hunter-gatherer in character. He did manage to connect with one, and was dropped by “Boom Boom” Rogers at mid on.

 Rushworth appeared to demonstrate to his partner that he needn't be in such a hurry, clipping Finny to the square leg boundary, a shot any batsman would have been proud of, to bring up the 200.  Next ball though he presented a dolly to Boom Boom, who had moved himself to mid off. He departed for 5 leaving Borthwick stranded on 41.

 The target of 118, although not huge, was enough to give us slight jitters. The 3^rd ball departure of Robbo, caught by Borthwick at 2^nd slip off one he could have left from Onions, followed next over by Boom Boom, brilliantly caught by Smith at gully off what was a full-blooded cut to a wide one from Rushworth left us a bit more than just jittery on 0/2!

 Onions was bowling brilliantly and had AC in all sorts of trouble. On 15, just when it looked as if he'd weathered the storm and was in some sort of control, he fell LBW to an unplayable grubber by Rushworth. Had it kept any lower it would have worn a groove in the pitch!

 Morgan (2) joined the procession, judged  LBW, after appearing to play around a straight one, again off Rushworth (30/4). Denly's departure soon afterwards for 16 (38/5) left Middlesex in meltdown, and Durham as clear favourites for the first time.

 With 6 overs left to play, we all thought the decision to bring TRJ in as nightwatchman was the wrong one. Too soon for a nightwatchman, and a tactic that all too often seems to backfire.

 To add to his woes, Lower Pavilion while absent-mindedly doing his fleece right up against a chilly evening wind managed (painfully) to zip his lip! Various unkind comments were passed, but it was decided not to nickname him “Zippy!”

As it turned out, TRJ proved his critics wrong, managed to stick around, and in fact had played quite aggressively for a very useful 15 not out by the close. Middlesex had progressed to 58/5, nearly half way to the target. Durham are still favourites, but there's still hope.

17 wickets fell yesterday, 18 today, so the pitch will inevitably fall under the spotlight. My opinion is that it hasn't been a great pitch to bat on, but it has at least been fair to both sides. Both sides have stronger bowling than batting line ups, and we have seen some genuinely top class bowling in this game. Most wickets that fell were not down to the pitch

Walking back to my castle, it occurred to me that a sleepless night of tossing and turning is likely tonight. Not so much to do with with the supernatural presence of Lily Lumley and those priests, but with the spectres of Onions, Stokes, & Co. Middlesex players and fans don't need to be staying in a 14^th century castle to be haunted by those particular spine-chilling entities, either!