The second day of Middlesex vs Durham at Lord's resumed with Middlesex being 126-5 in their first innings after a manic first day in which 15 wickets fell, and there were to be more, as Neil Dexter fished Graham Onions to Phil Mustard in the 5th over of the day to fall for 48. Ollie Rayner hooked his first ball for six, but fell in the same over repeating the shot and edging through to Mustard. And soon Onions was to have five wickets, with Gareth Berg edging to Mustard for 35 as Middlesex were now 149-8, with a lead of only 6. The rest only clawed out a lead of 25 as Finn edged to Richardson off Onions and Murtagh edged to Mustard off Onions as Middlesex crashed to 168 all out, Onions finishing with 7-62, having picked up 5-20 in 5.2 overs that morning,
Durham came out to start their 2nd innings and Mark Stoneman was promptly LBW to Tim Murtagh fourth ball for a duck, which was quickly followed by Keaton Jennings poking to Robson at slip off Finn for 2, 10-2. Scott Borthwick and Will Smith took Durham into the lead, but Borthwick was cleaned up by Murtagh for 25 and at 32-3 it looked like another collapse was on our hands. Smith and Ben Stokes averted anymore disaster before lunch and Durahm knew this was their last big chance to push for a decent lead of 200 or so to give Middlesex a tough chase given the rate of wickets falling.
A blast of boundaries after lunch brought up the 50 partnership in the 28th over but Smith gave in away soon after, heaving the ball straight to Finn at mid on for 30, 97-4. This was quickly 98-5 as Paul Colling wood was bowled first ball by Corey Collymore, and a collapse looked on again. Stokes meanwhile was carefully blocking and then whacking anything he could and he reached his 50 from 92 balls as the lead ticked past 100. He though threw it away, charging Rayner and being easily stumped by John Simpson for 51, and Rayner had 2 in 3 as Richardson popped an easy catch to Adam Voges as Durham were now 129-7 thanks to the double wicket maiden from Rayner.
Callum Thorp blasted a quick 23, when the return of Finn bowled him and then Onions 3 balls later for a duck. Chris Rushworth soon followed to end the innings propping a catch off Rayner to Robson at short leg for 2, Durham 171 all out, leaving Middlesex 2 and a bit days to score 147, Mustard unbeaten on 30, Rayner 3-25, Murtagh 3-32.
Middlesex survived six overs, before Robson edged Rushworth to Richardson for 6, 23-1. Joe Denly looked a bit nervous, trying to connect with anything he could for runs and he sliced the ball straight to Stokes to go for 32, and give Onions his 8th wicket of the match at 41-2. Eoin Morgan was then struck bang in front first ball by Onion's inswing, only for it to be called a no ball by the umpire, possibly the moment the game finally went away from Durham for good.
Voges and Morgan managed to see off the final 13 overs of the day with relative (given what had gone before) ease as Middlesex closed on 103-2, not taking the extra half hour and coming back to score the remaining 44 needed for the much needed victory.
