Match report provided by the ECB Reporters' Network.
DAY FOUR
Middlesex (11pts) drew with Glamorgan (13pts)
Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins recorded his highest first-class score of 221 as his side’s Vitality County Championship opener against Glamorgan at Lord’s drifted to an inevitable draw.
Higgins’ epic effort, which contained 21 fours and two sixes, was his first double hundred and featured a ninth-wicket partnership of 114 with Tom Helm, who also posted a career-best 64.
Middlesex’s total of 655 was the second largest in their history, with Glamorgan off-spinner Kiran Carlson taking three for 147 while Craig Miles and Colin Ingram claimed two wickets apiece.
But a share of the spoils had always seemed virtually guaranteed on a batting-friendly pitch where only 15 wickets fell in the course of four days and Glamorgan reached 31 for two in their second innings before the captains shook hands.
With Middlesex requiring just 11 at the start of play to take the follow-on out of the equation, a positive result looked an improbable long shot and the visitors duly opened proceedings with gentle spin from both ends.
Colin Ingram collected a wicket in the seventh over of the day, taking a routine return catch to dismiss Josh de Caires for 20, while Toby Roland-Jones posted an identical score before he was caught behind swishing at Jamie McIlroy.
That was at least some reward for the Glamorgan left-armer, who bowled consistently on a surface that gave no assistance to any of the frontline seamers, medium-pacers or spinners shuffled around by visiting captain Sam Northeast.
Meanwhile, Higgins advanced beyond 150 by steering Mir Hamza for an all-run four to third man and the only remaining question was whether the Seaxes’ tail could supply their team-mate with enough support to give him a crack at the double century.
Henry Brookes departed shortly before lunch, chipping Miles into the hands of midwicket, but Helm stuck around and unfurled some eye-catching strokes, including a straight-driven boundary off Zain ul Hassan.
Helm also pumped Ingram over mid-on for six en route to his fourth first-class half-century and the same bowler was on the receiving end again as Higgins reached 200 from 350 balls, steering him off the back foot to the midwicket boundary.
That landmark prompted the Seaxes pair to throw the bat and Higgins thrashed another six to raise the hundred partnership before Carlson finally ended his lengthy stay at the crease, tempting the double centurion out of his ground for Chris Cooke to take off the bails.
Helm became the keeper’s third victim, snapped up off a bottom edge to end an innings that had lasted 211 overs and two balls on the stroke of tea.
There was still time after the interval for the luckless Ul Hassan – caught behind cheaply off Ethan Bamber in the first half-hour of the game – to be dismissed in identical fashion for just two second time around and Leus du Plooy claimed his first wicket for Middlesex in the final over of the game, having Billy Root caught at slip.
DAY THREE
Ryan Higgins struck the eighth first-class hundred of his career to steer Middlesex towards the safety of a draw on day three of their high-scoring encounter with Glamorgan at Lord’s.
The all-rounder in his second spell with the Seaxes made the most of a benign Lord’s pitch to plunder an unbeaten 127 and enable the hosts, faced with the scoreboard pressure of Glamorgan’s steepling first inning score of 620-3, to move to the verge of avoiding the follow-on with their impressive reply of 460-5.
He was ably assisted by wicketkeeper/batter Jack Davies who made 60, the pair sharing a fifth wicket stand of 153 having come together with their side still almost 350 runs in arrears. Their efforts came after Mark Stoneman fell three shy of a century.
The home side’s total marked the first time they had registered 400-plus in a first-class match at Lord’s since mustering 485 against Sussex in July 2022.
Glamorgan’s bowlers stuck manfully to the task throughout the day, on a track offering them nothing and with a Kookaburra ball which quickly went soft, Kiran Carlson becoming the first bowler in the match to take more than one wicket, returning 2-89.
Docile surface or not, Middlesex began the day 138-1, a daunting 482 runs in arrears and they might have lost Stoneman in the first over had a shy at the stumps from an unnecessarily risky single resulted in a direct hit.
Thereafter, he and the other overnight batter Max Holden were unperturbed, the later moving smoothly to 50. However, with his hundred beckoning Stoneman mistimed a drive and found only the hands of cover, ending a stand of 120.
As so often with large partnerships when one player falls the other quickly follows and while Stoneman’s departure could be put down to batter error, Holden fell to a well-executed plan, turning a ball off his hip into the hands of a judiciously placed Colin Ingram at leg-slip.
At 202-3 there would still have have been jitters for a Middlesex side who managed only five batting points in the whole of their 2023 campaign which ended in relegation.
However, as so often in that campaign it was a case of Higgins being the man to step up, he and debutant Leus De Plooy seeing them through to lunch without further loss.
Glamorgan took the new ball on the resumption and their hopes rose again when De Plooy’s innings was cut short on 37 by one from Mir Hamza which did just enough to beat the bat and trap him in front.
If the Welsh county sensed a door opening, Higgins and Davies joined forces to slam it shut. Higgins drove and cut with authority, mixing aggression with controlled defence to pass 50 for the 27th time in his career and he was within sight of three figures by tea.
Davies, given the nod to fill the shoes of wicketkeeping legend John Simpson – now at Sussex – over teammates Robbie White and Joe Cracknell, provided staunch support and reached his second first-class 50 early in the evening session.
Higgins had a bigger milestone in mind racing through the nineties with an exquisite straight drive before punching one to the short boundary at mid-wicket to score his second hundred in Middlesex colours and his first at the Home of Cricket.
Davies would fall six short of a new career-best when Carlson picked him up lbw but by then the hosts were within 45 of the follow-on mark.
Higgins though remains and with only 11 needed to avoid being asked to bat again the honours seem destined to be shared ahead of day four.
DAY TWO
Sam Northeast eclipsed Graham Gooch’s record individual first-class score at Lord’s with a majestic unbeaten 335 as his Glamorgan side continued to dominate their Vitality County Championship opener against Middlesex.
The new Glamorgan skipper struck 36 fours and six sixes in a marathon knock of almost nine hours, becoming the first player in the county’s history to register a triple century twice and enabling them to post their best total against Middlesex, a commanding 620 for three declared.
Overtaking Gooch’s effort of 333 for England in the 1990 Lord’s Test against India, the 34-year-old shared an unbroken fourth-wicket stand of 299 with Colin Ingram, who finished 132 not out.
Mark Stoneman hit a defiant undefeated 62 in response as Middlesex reached stumps on 138 for one, still trailing their opponents by 482.
Needing 14 runs for a double hundred at the start of play, Northeast ticked off that target in the fourth over of the morning after cutting Toby Roland-Jones for two boundaries in quick succession.
While the Glamorgan pair appeared uninterested in the carrot of a fifth batting bonus point, they continued to pile on runs throughout the opening session against an attack that stuck gamely to their task on an unresponsive pitch.
Northeast – who had already overtaken the Welsh county’s previous best individual score against Middlesex, made by current chief executive Dan Cherry almost two decades ago at Southgate – offered a difficult chance on 239.
Substitute fielder Joe Cracknell, diving to his left at point, could not hang onto Northeast’s robust cut off Ryan Higgins and the Glamorgan captain went on to pummel the same bowler for a string of sixes over the short Mound Stand boundary.
Ingram, who looked positively subdued by comparison, advanced to his half-century from 95 balls, turning Josh de Caires for two behind square as Glamorgan passed the 500 mark before lunch.
There was another life for Northeast after the interval, nine short of his triple century, as he danced down the track to the off-spinner and the ball turned past his outside edge, but Jack Davies was unable to complete the stumping.
However, a sweep to the boundary soon afterwards carried Northeast to 300 and he began to accelerate, taking 18 off a single De Caires over while Ingram’s slashed six off Tom Helm to bring up his own hundred went almost unnoticed.
Indisputably, though, the moment belonged to Northeast and he steered Henry Brookes for a leg-side single to move past Gooch’s record, savouring a well-deserved round of applause from the stands before declaring at the end of the over.
Glamorgan’s hopes of wreaking early damage with the ball were raised when their Pakistan left-armer Mir Hamza got it to swing at the start of Middlesex’s reply, but Stoneman and Sam Robson soon settled down to chip away at the daunting follow-on target of 471.
Stoneman looked strong outside off stump, cutting James Harris for four to bring up 50 soon after tea, while Robson also found the boundary regularly to accrue 43 in an opening stand of 79.
The right-hander was eventually undone by a beauty from Craig Miles, seaming back down the slope to hit middle and off stump and it was left to Max Holden, who finished unbeaten on 24, to help see Middlesex through to the close.
Stoneman brought up his half-century in style, thrashing Harris to the rope at long-on, but the home side will probably need to occupy the crease for the majority of day three if they are to take anything from this game.
DAY ONE
Sam Northeast became the summer’s first Vitality County Championship centurion on the opening day of the season in Glamorgan’s Division Two clash with hosts Middlesex at Lord’s.
The Glamorgan skipper passed the landmark for the 30th time in his career, sharing century stands with Billy Root, 67, and Kiran Carlson, 77, finishing unbeaten on 186 as the Welsh county reached 370-3 by the close in a game marking the 100th first-class encounter between the two counties.
Glamorgan have won only 10 of the previous 99 matches, but Northeast’s cultured effort, notable for crisp, powerful drives both straight and through cover has given them a dominant position from which to dictate affairs at the Home of Cricket.
Middlesex, relegated from Division One last season, were left to rue skipper Toby-Roland-Jones’ decision to bowl first on a biscuit-coloured surface which proved drier than expected and offered little to their five-man pace attack. Ethan Bamber with 2-66 was the only bowler to take more than one wicket on a chastening day for the Seaxes.
Northeast made the third highest championship score in the game’s history when striking an unbeaten 410 against Leicestershire at Grace Road during his first season with the county in 2022, and while this effort wasn’t of those proportions – well, not yet anyway - it will nevertheless have brought him huge satisfaction.
The 34-year-old was summoned to the crease early after Zain Ul Hassan nicked a ball from Bamber, which angled in a fraction before holding it’s line, to wicketkeeper Jack Davies
The wicket proved a solitary success for Middlesex in a pre-lunch session where Ryan Higgins’ frugal opening spell apart, their bowling bore an early season looseness.
Tom Helm was the main culprit, his opening four overs yielding 36 to a flurry of boundaries by Northeast and second-wicket partner Root. In fairness to Helm, he might have dismissed both batters even in that errant spell. First Northeast gave his only semblance of a chance when miscuing a drive square of the wicket which fell agonizingly short of a diving Max Holden at backward point. Shortly afterwards Helm found the edge of Root’s bat only for debutant Leus Du Plooy to drop a fairly regulation catch moving to his right at gully.
Those scares survived, Northeast and Root feasted on some friendly offerings regularly peppering the mid-off and cover boundaries with the former especially fluent, moving to 50 at almost a run a ball. Root took 12 balls more before reaching the landmark by punching his ninth four square of the wicket.
The pair forged on, if a little more circumspectly, after lunch and it was a surprise when Middlesex’s other debutant Henry Brookes produced an in-swinging Yorker to uproot Root’s stumps and send him back for 67.
Northeast though found another ally in former skipper Carlson, who was initially content to play himself in while his well-established partner kept the scoreboard ticking a good rate.
His second 50 took 95 balls as having got his side on top he consolidated that authority before reaching his hundred with a trademark drive creamed through the cover region.
As the bowlers tired, so Northeast and Carlson pressed the accelerator after tea, the latter becoming the third batter to pass 50 before depositing Helm over the short boundary for the day’s only six. His dismissal came out of the blue when driving Bamber straight to extra cover to end a stand of 176.
By then, Northeast had passed 150 with arguably the shot of the day, his third 50 coming in only 49 balls.
The right-hander was closing in on his double hundred by the time stumps were drawn and with batting to come Glamorgan may have an eye on eclipsing their record score against Middlesex of 584 made at Southgate in 2005.
Middlesex
Glamorgan
