After two days of almost total rain at Lord's, Middlesex were only 132-5 in their first innings against Durham, which became 132-6 when Neil Dexter edged Ben Stokes to Michael Di Venuto at slip from the 3rd ball of the day for 65. Gareth Berg (2) did the same thing off Callum Thorp. Luckily, the tail showed some fight as first Tim Murtagh then Toby Roland-Jones hit 18 and 17 respectably before the destroyer of the 2nd day Graham Onions returned from the Nursery End. Murtagh was caught behind and R-J skied to Ian Blackwell at mid-on to give Onions a handy 5-for, which he turned into 6-45 as Steve Finn poked to slip 2nd ball to leave Middlesx 188 all out, John Simpson unbeaten on 25.
The 6 overs before lunch brought 29 runs as Di Venuto and Will Smith feasted on loose bowling from Finn and Murtagh. The pair took the score to 59 when Finn produced a cracker to flatten Di Venuto's off stump for 30. Next over Murtagh forced Smith to edge to Malan at slip for 29. Paul Collingwood and Stokes played Durham past 100 with some good strokes before Collingwood edged to Strauss off Roland-Jones for 19, 109-3. Stokes hit 7 fours in his 45, when he gave Strauss his 2nd catch (as many balls as he'd faced batting) with an off stump swish off Finn. Dale Benkenstein was caught behind by Simpson off Berg for 24 and Blackwell (12) fell LBW to Finn in the next over to put Durham 164-6 still 24 behind with four wickets left at tea.
After tea Berg took two wickets in 3 balls as Mustard (ct Simpson 5) and Thorp (LBW 0) made the score 181-8. Mitch Claydon then hit two fours to bring up the lead before giving catching practice to Finn at mid-on off Murtagh, 194-9. The last wicket was to provide a crucial partnership as Onions (who else?) and Scott Borthwick clubbed quick runs. Borthwick hit Berg into the Grand stand for 6 and Onions hit an all four 20, including a sweet cover drive and some hard hits off Murtagh. Roland-Jones finally caused a miscue to Finn at mid-on to leave Durham 238 all out, 50 ahead, big, given the circumstances.
Middlesex then made heavy weather of the 11.3 that were possible before bad light stuck with the outfield seemingly slowing down for them, Strauss struggled to get off his pair and when he did it was due to a dropped catch by Thorp at gully. Onions was swinging the ball all around again, and bowled Strauss for 6 off the inside edge. 12-1 and still 38 behind Roland-Jones came in as nightwatchman and saw off the remaining time with Sam Robson to finish 21-1 with a draw looking likely.
The unusual observation of the day was either the three all-run fours or the pigeon that settled on a length as Robson was about to face Thorp and had to be chased away to the Grand Stand.
