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Nottinghamshire went down to a disappointing 10-wicket defeat in their opening LV= County Championship match of the season.
Middlesex reached their victory target of 108 in just 25 overs after the home side had lost their final wicket with the first ball of the final morning.
Undefeated on 50 overnight Andre Adams attempted to guide Toby Roland-Jones’ first delivery down to third man but couldn’t get it past the diving Ollie Rayner at second slip.
“The plan was to get past the first four balls and then have a bit of a swipe at the fifth and get one off the last but it didn’t come off." Andre Adams
“It bounced a little and I probably shouldn’t have played it,” said Adams.
“The plan was to get past the first four balls and then have a bit of a swipe at the fifth and get one off the last but it didn’t come off.
“A loss is never great first up but it does open your eyes and you have to bounce back. We are traditionally one of the best performing teams in April and May but we’ve performed pretty poorly in this match. It was a very sloppy performance and we’ve got to pick ourselves up.”
The match only stretched into the fourth day due to Adams stand with Luke Fletcher on the previous evening.
“Fletch batted really well,” said Adams.
“If he can continue to do that and we can throw some partnerships together it can be useful but only having 100 to chase it was always going to be backs against the wall for us.
“I was terrible with the bat last year, so definitely a better start this year but I’d like to have been scoring those runs today rather than yesterday.
“I was definitely undercooked bowling-wise but the issue is that at 37 you can’t play every game so I came into this season the same way I came into the last one. I was pretty well rested, had bowled in the nets and was feeling pretty good but I’m probably just a little bit rusty still.”
With rain forecast for later in the day the onus was on the visitors to quickly wrap up the Nottinghamshire second innings and they couldn’t have done it any quicker with Adams going to the opening ball of the session.
Openers Sam Robson and Chris Rogers, who put on 106 together in the Middlesex first innings, both survived early scares as tempers became a little frayed at the start of the chase.
Notts clearly believed that Robson had edged Luke Fletcher through to wicketkeeper Chris Read but umpire Neil Mallender was unconvinced.
Words were exchanged between the fielders and the young opener and Read threw the ball towards the stumps after taking each of the next two deliveries.
The officials intervened, requesting order to be restored but it flared up again in the next over with Rogers surviving a claim for another catch behind, off the bowling of Ajmal Shahzad.
A succession of boundaries from both batsmen dampened the spirits of the home side. Rogers, in particular, was ruthless on anything on his legs, whipping Shahzad and Adams away through midwicket.
Rogers was the first to his fifty, from just 52 deliveries, with Robson’s coming from 84 and the right-hander then stroked Samit Patel through the off side to complete the victory.
Nottinghamshire claimed only five bonus points from the game and are next in action at Trent Bridge next Wednesday when they began a 3-day first class match against Durham MCCU.