Chris Rogers

By Gary Watton
April 30 2014

After incurring a defeat, it seems customary for recriminations to abound as the vanquished engage in a bout of soul-searching. However, just occasionally a post-mortem should be avoided, and instead it would be more appropriate to simply pay tribute to an opponent who just played superior cricket. So it has come to pass that Chris Rogers has produced a breath-taking display of quality batting.

Before the battle commenced between north and south, Andrew Gale selflessly fell on his own sword and stepped aside to accommodate the returning Joe Root. It's not that Gale has been hopelessly out of form, but he had recorded less runs than the other batsmen, so he wisely volunteered to be the sacrificial lamb. Nevertheless, I am in little doubt that Andrew will soon be back with a bang when Joe and/or Gary are upgraded to the test team.

Anyhow, one might originally have been forgiven for fearing the worst when the Tykes were asked to bat first and merely obliged with a paltry total of 178, with our stand-in captain Joe Root being dismissed at cricket headquarters for a duck egg. However, the visitors responded well to their self-imposed crisis by rolling the hosts over for a totally inept 123. A fifty-five runs advantage at the halfway stage in favour of the team batting first looked invaluable, especially when a low-scoring tussle appeared to be on the cards.

Well, the white rose then got off to a flier in their second innings, and it seemed increasingly likely that Ballance's second century in consecutive outings had well and truly tipped the contest in the direction of a near-certain away win. Let's face it. If Yorkshire had not been bowled out for 416, they would probably have declared soon after instead. Well, along came the Middlesex run chase. It seemed at first akin to a wild goose chase, but a massive first-wicket stand of almost 200 between young Robson and Rogers totally transformed the proceedings.

I mentioned to my uncle that Middlesex had been set 472 to win. Not surprisingly he retorted "No chance." Well, I then pointed out that the home team had remarkably finished the penultimate day on 230 for 1. Suddenly the encounter seemed to be delicately poised. In the event, Rogers and his supporting cast breezed to the finishing line, with a quite staggering seven wickets to spare. Neil Dexter deserves much credit for his fine cameo, and although it might be tempting to blow raspberries at Yorkshire's misfiring attack, it just seems much more appropriate to simply hold one's hands up and acknowledge the majestic batting of Chris Rogers. You would think that Root (and Ballance) would be accustomed to being on the losing team against Chris Rogers by now!

Oh well. Middlesex thrust themselves into the record books as they avenged Yorkshire's conquests against them in 2013. For the latter, all is not lost. It ultimately took something special to condemn them to a rare defeat. The Tykes need not beat themselves up about this setback. The sign of a good team is one that can learn from such a harsh lesson. Besides, this time last year, the white rose had already lost one of their first three matches too, so perhaps the omens are not quite so gloomy

Middlesex versus YORKSHIRE; at Lord's; 27th-30th April. Middlesex won the toss.

YORKSHIRE first innings: 178 (Plunkett 56*; Finn 4-50, Harris 3-42, Murtagh 3-48)

Middlesex first innings: 123 (Sidebottom 4-34, Brooks 3-47)

YORKSHIRE second innings: 416 (Ballance 130, Root 63, Lyth 54; Finn 4-89)

Middlesex second innings: 472 for 3 (Rogers 241*, Robson 77, Dexter 72*)

Middlesex win by seven wickets. Middlesex 19 points, YORKSHIRE 3 points.

Here follows a player-by-player assessment.

Lyth - 88 runs and 3 catches was a good return, but his efforts were completely eclipsed by the heroics of his opposite number.

Lees - Hopefully he will have learnt from watching the masterful innings of Rogers about converting a start into a large score.

Williamson - Two scores in the thirties look poor when placed alongside the Rogers innings. Kane needs to get a hundred in the near future.

Root - His first taste of the captaincy was a chastening experience but Joe did redeem himself with a decent knock in the second innings.

Ballance - Gary provided 150 more reasons why he must be a nailed-on certainty for inclusion in the next England test team.

Rashid - Adil drew a blank as a bowler but at least he weighed in with some seemingly valuable runs in the second innings.

Hodd - 27 runs in the match was way below par, but it wasn't his fault that we lost.

Plunkett - Liam's batting got Yorkshire out of jail in the first innings. His bowling was good first time around but then he fell foul of the dynamic Rogers.

Sidebottom - The veteran ran through the Middlesex top order first time around but even he could not escape the Rogers rampage in the run chase.

Patterson - Steven bowled few overs, and so this match almost passed him by.

Brooks - Jack's first innings achievements were completely upstaged by his second innings nightmare, conceding 134 runs from 22 overs.