The 3rd day of Middlesex vs Lancashire at Lord's started off looking like an uninteresting day as Lancashire resumed on 236-3, 210 runs behind Middlesex. They batted onwards, but scored slowly as they managed 30 runs in the first 15 overs. The overnight 50+ man Ashwell Prince fell for 71, edging Toby Roland-Jones to Dawid Malan at first slip and Steven Croft went shortly after, Roland-Jones removing his middle and leg stumps, and leaving the off pole at an angle as the ball didn't really bounce, 270-5 and Middlesex on top. Lancashire keeper Gareth Cross then revived his side, attacking Steve Crook, Corey Collymore and Ravi Patel all round the ground as he raced to a 30 ball fifty either side of lunch and went into the final bonus point over (the 110th) needing 9 runs for a fourth point, Gareth Berg's first ball was then murdered into the Tavern stand for six, but he fell next ball, edging to keeper John Simpson for a 35 ball 59. That gave Middlesex a 2nd bowling point and Karl Brown (who'd batted all day) brought up the 350 with 2 balls to spare.
The task was now to get a first innings lead as Warwickshire had now won the title off Lancashire and Surrey were looking strong in their game. This meant that a win was a must and Brown finally went to 50, from 133 balls but Kyle Hogg departed next ball, smashing Patel straight to Malan at mid on for 10. Glenn Chapple then came in and played sensibly with Brown, scoring steadily and passing 400, before speeding up by smashing Neil Dexter for six over long on and it looked like they might still be able to get a 50 run lead. But, when they'd added 51, Chapple charged Patel, missed, and was easily stumped by Simpson for 29, 426-8. Ajmal Shahzad was then LBW to Patel (his fourth) for 10 with 9 needed for the lead, which Brown got with a sweep for four off Patel's next over. The end came soon after, as Berg returned to the attack and removed Brown's off stump first ball for 78, all out for 448 leading by 2, Patel's 4-126 being the pick of the bowlers.
Middlesex's reply then got off to a rocky start as Sam Robson was LBW to Chapple (his sixth of the match) for 3, 5-1. Chris Rogers and Joe Denly then steadily built the lead before Shahzad fired one through Denly on 17, 44-2. But that was to be the last wicket of the day as Malan joined Rogers in batting out the day with some stylish strokeplay, with Rogers going to his 50 from 69 balls as Middlesex ended the day 129-2.
A partnership of 85 with Rogers on 57 and Malan, 37, one day away from possibly relegating the former Champions, leading by 127.
