By D J Rutnagur at Lord's
First day of four: Middlesex 278-4 v Yorkshire
IF Owais Shah's omission from Middlesex's last match was meant to be a crack of the whip, it has had the desired effect. The youngster responded with a polished and responsible 96 not out, which held together a Middlesex innings that was never in distress, but which, judging by recent performances, could easily have fallen into disarray.
Circumspect, but never dull, Shah, who was in for 294 minutes and faced 252 balls, hit 10 fours, the most attractive of which were driven off the back foot.
Justin Langer, the season's most prolific batsman, did his bit again, passing the 50 mark for the ninth time in 19 innings. He had a new opening partner in 22-year-old David Goodchild, making his first first-team appearance since his debut in 1996.
Goodchild failed to survive the opening over, trapped lbw by a swinging ball of full length from Chris Silverwood. Laying a foundation to the innings was hard graft, for the ball swung and was not easily timed on a slow pitch. Langer and Mike Gatting got their heads down and put on 67.
The pair saw off the pace bowlers and one savoured the prospect of Gatting dominating the spinners. But Richard Stemp slipped an arm ball through his defence and Langer, seeking to work him off his legs, fell lbw and Middlesex were 108 for three.
Shah, extremely watchful, and Keith Brown, who came together 10 minutes before lunch, batted staunchly for 33 overs to add 78 before Brown, probably playing for turn which did not materialise, provided a maiden wicket to off-spinner James Middlebrook. That, however, was Yorkshire's last success.
Day 2: Imperious Shah exerts authority
By D J Rutnagur at Lord's
Second day of four: Yorkshire (90-2) trail Middlesex (448) by 358 runs
WITH Owais Shah's chanceless 140 as its central pillar, Middlesex built a total that was indeed imposing. But they took until 15 minutes from tea to complete its construction and may therefore find themselves unable to make its weight felt, unless the slow pitch deteriorates markedly.
The freedom and fluency with which Michael Vaughan played his strokes in making 56 not out gave force to Yorkshire's reply, although they lost two wickets.
With Anthony McGrath short of runs, David Byas took on the onus of opening the innings. The ploy was unsuccessful. Stepping down the pitch to drive Phil Tufnell through midwicket, he was beaten in the air and bowled behind his legs.
Then with five overs remaining, the compact Matthew Wood, who looked entrenched, propped forward to Paul Weekes with taut wrists and was picked up at short leg.
When Middlesex resumed in the morning at 278 for four, the second new ball was only six overs old and clouds lingered overhead. But with Chris Silverwood unable to fix his radar, Yorkshire could derive no advantage from the conditions and the overnight partnership between Shah and Weekes flourished for another 95 minutes and 66 runs.
The first hour yielded just 20. But then Shah, who had needed 265 minutes to arrive at his first century of the season, asserted himself and hit a succession of fours, most of them off the back foot.
Weekes reached fifty, but without ever coming to terms with his timing. After a good ball from Gavin Hamilton that nipped back removed Shah, whose last 40 included eight fours, Weekes and David Nash added 43. Nash's dismissal led to a mini-collapse, but Middlesex's tail wagged furiously.
Day 3: Vaughan shows Yorkshire grit
By D J Rutnagur at Lord's
Third day of four: Middlesex (448 & 105-1) lead Yorkshire (335) by 218 runs
THE EPITHETS popularly used in describing Yorkshire's successful responses to adversity are 'dour' and 'gritty'.
There was no denying the presence of grit in Michael Vaughan's century, which was made while wickets fell around him. But dour it certainly wasn't as Vaughan batted with delightful freedom, playing shots of stirring elegance.
Despite Vaughan's second century of the summer, which included 18 fours and was made off 253 balls, the spectre of the follow-on still loomed over Yorkshire. It was banished smartly by a rollicking partnership between Richard Blakey and Gavin Hamilton, who put on 108 for the eighth wicket in 23 overs.
Yesterday was one of those days when Yorkshire would have blessed the day they opened their ranks to recruits from outside their borders, for Vaughan by birth is a Lancastrian and Hamilton a Scot, who will wear his country's colours in the World Cup next year.
If Vaughan was stately, the left-handed Hamilton was audacious and flamboyant in making 72 off 89 balls.
Vaughan, delightfully old-fashioned in letting his bat swing through a full arc, scored the bulk of his runs with drives through the offside.
His dismissal, brought about by a good catch at short midwicket by a sprawling Mike Gatting from a clip off the legs at Phil Tufnell, ended a partnership of 61 with Richard Blakey, who survived to score 65 his most productive innings of the season.
But at Blakey's departure Yorkshire, with only four wickets standing, needed another 85 runs to avoid the follow-on. With the margin reduced by just one, James Middlebrook was bowled by Richard Johnson, offering no stroke.
Hamilton came in and instantly played the most daring shots through the offside. Those he middled had the look of class and those that went high off the edge eluded the field.
Middlesex batted in the same vein to widen their lead of 113. Justin Langer, edging a drive at a Hutchison out-swinger, suffered a rare failure but David Goochild, the apprentice, settled in and Gatting played with his old verve to hit five fours and a six.
Day 4: Gatting frets at reaching 95th century
By Rob Steen
YOU would think the old boy would be used to it by now. But no, after 94 first-class centuries, 36 of them on this same hallowed pasture, Mike Gatting approached his latest statistical landmark here yesterday with all the twitching uncertainty of a chap hoping to break his virginity with a long-coveted damsel.
If the beard could have got any greyer, it undoubtedly would. The contrast with his belligerence in the first hour was stark. Resuming on 56, with Middlesex 218 runs to the good, Gatting had treated seam and spin alike with disdain, dragging David Goodchild along in his wake as the pair passed the county's record second-wicket stand against Yorkshire, shunting aside the 192 put on by Mike Brearley and Mike Smith at the same premises 24 years ago.
The latter gazed down from his eyrie in the scorers' box, unsure, perhaps, whether to offer a toast or submit to a quiet groan. Gatting had reached 99 when the fretting began. First he swept at Richard Stemp and took a blow on the chin. Next ball he pushed gently to the left of point and called for a single that can only have existed in his imagination. With Goodchild's assertive ``no'' boomed out, sanity was restored.
Until now, David Byas to his undying credit, had resisted summoning his lob merchants, but now he turned to Darren Lehmann, an enthusiastic purveyor of what might fairly be termed left-arm hopefuls. Goodchild collected a brace of boundaries, hogging the strike until the final ball, whereupon Byas motioned his fielders in. Even where runs are an irrelevance, York- shiremen only know one way to play.
After keeping out the delivery, Gatting peered anxiously up at the home dressing room. Keith Brown wouldn't dare declare now, would he? Finally, in the next over, relief as Stemp strayed and Gatting swept him smoothly behind square to register his eighth three-figure score against the Tykes, improving his own all-comers' record.
Without breaking stride, he raised his bat to all four corners and marched off to the pavilion, doffing his cap and trotting up the steps like a spring lamb. All of which left Yorkshire chasing 321 in a minimum of 78 overs, just 10 fewer than the most they have made in the fourth innings to win which, coincidentally enough, came on this very ground 88 years ago. While the footmarks at the pavilion end augured well for Phil Tufnell, the chalk-coloured pitch suggested that the bat would continue to prosper with sensible application. An intriguing tussle loomed.
A spate of wides, no-balls and leg-byes in Richard Johnson's first over gave the visitors a push start, and by the sixth over, 40 were on the board. Very un-Yorkshire. Johnson, though, was not to be cowed. Broad of shoulder and easeful of approach, he is beginning to recapture the form that made him the last Englishman to claim 10 wickets in an innings and won him a berth on England's last tour of South Africa before a knee complaint prevented him from leaving London and severely retarded his progress.
Frequently beating both openers for sheer pace, he gained his just deserts when Byas gloved a bouncer and Brown defied both gravity and his critics to pluck the ball down as it soared over his head.
Lunchboxes had barely been divested of their contents when Johnson had Michael Vaughan caught at slip off a no-ball, then made amends with the final delivery of the over, castling Matthew Wood as the youngster groped forward. A whack from a Johnson bouncer, flush on the side of the face, had presumably left its mark in more ways than one. Nor can David Nash's sadistic chirp from short leg - ``lovely bowling'' - have done much for his peace of mind.
Had Justin Langer clung on at slip when Lehmann poked at his first ball, Middlesex would have scented blood. As it was, Johnson's heavy-footed trudge back to his mark was eloquence personified.
Now for all Tufnell's flight and rigorous control - just 12 runs came from his first 11 overs - his only bounty of a slow-burning afternoon session arrived when Vaughan, propping forward with textbook precision, was confounded by one that turned sharply enough to leave his off stump at a decidedly tipsy angle.
Lehmann, though, continued to cut and pull with alacrity, leaving matters nicely poised at tea - 168 to get at five an over and the old place agog.