Brett Hutton’s two-wicket burst was countered by a Sam Robson century on day two of Middlesex versus Nottinghamshire as honours ended even as rain brought an early end to proceedings.
When the wet weather arrived to wash out most of the final session, the home side were on 203 for three in their first innings, still 151 runs behind.
Sam Robson continued his fine start to the campaign, notching his third century of the new season, and was undefeated on 114. John Simpson was with him on 66 not out, the pair having added an unbroken 154 so far for the fourth wicket.
Nottinghamshire’s first innings was wrapped up for 354, with the last three wickets going down in just 17 minutes, two of them to Toby Roland-Jones, who closed with figures of five for 61.
The arrival of the rain wasn’t too disappointing for Mick Newell, who said he was pleased to get his players back in the dressing room.
“There wasn’t a great deal happening on the wicket. It was pretty slow, pretty flat and I don’t think we were progressing really, at the time, so we’ll re-assess and have another go tomorrow,” he said.
“I think it’s been slower today than yesterday and when Stuart Broad is bowling without slip fielders halfway through day two and we’re not expecting the ball to carry to those fielders it’s obviously an indication of a pretty slow pitch.”
“It was disappointing that we were bowling by half past eleven; that certainly wasn’t in the plan. We wanted to go out there and make at least 400 and secure those batting bonus points and then see if we could put Middlesex under pressure, so we lost momentum there and then didn’t start so well with the ball but grabbed that back through Brett (Hutton) and Stuart and got back into a good position by lunch.”
Middlesex’s openers put on 40 together, to seal a very fine first hour for the home county but then Notts roared back with three wickets in the period up to lunch.
Stuart Broad, bowling with good pace and energy from the Nursery End, made the breakthrough, bowling Nick Gubbins for 11, via a huge deflection.
Brett Hutton was brought on to bowl the 15th over of the innings and claimed two wickets from consecutive deliveries. Nick Compton was lbw for three, beaten by one that nipped back down the slope and Dawid Malan followed, superbly caught down the leg side by a sprawling Chris Read.
A quiet start to the afternoon session produced only six runs in 20 minutes but then Robson and Simpson began to kick on. The opener reached his 50 from 92 balls, with seven fours and Simpson burst into life with a straight six in Samit Patel’s first over.
Smashing through a window on the middle tier of the pavilion, the ball was presumably damaged and was immediately replaced.
As the afternoon wore on there was less and less by way of help for the bowlers as Read rotated his four seamers, plus Patel and Steven Mullaney.
Simpson worked Mullaney to third man to simultaneously take the score to 150, bring up the century partnership and reach his own half-century, getting there from 93 balls, with nine fours and a six.
Heavy cloud cover began to help the bowlers at the start of the final session but Robson countered by pulling Hutton for the four to take him to his third ton-plus score of the summer, getting there from 194 balls, with 15 fours.
Nottinghamshire struggled at the start of the day with their final three wickets falling for only nine runs, within the first four overs.
Patel didn’t add to his overnight 86 before lifting Roland-Jones into the hands of the diving Malan at deep square leg.
A Jake Ball boundary brought up a fourth batting point for the visitors but he failed to add any more before being bowled by Tim Murtagh.
Roland-Jones’ fifth wicket was that of Harry Gurney, cleaned up first delivery, leaving Hutton unbeaten on 28.
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