Middlesex secured their second victory of the season when they defeated Lancashire by six wickets on a dramatic third day of the County Championship match.
Naavya Sharma took a career-best four for 17 and Ryan Higgins four for 27 to help dismiss the home side for 84, Middlesex’s first win at Old Trafford since 1996.
The visitors then needed 117 to win and the outcome was in some doubt when they were 64 for four just after lunch but Ben Geddes’s 73 not out off 70 balls enabled them to reach their target in some comfort.
Higgins was unbeaten on seven having helped Geddes put on an unbroken 53 for the fifth wicket.
The result takes Middlesex above their opponents in the Division Two table but the two sides’ placings will not be clear until this round of matches is completed.
In the most dramatic of morning sessions, Middlesex continued their destruction of Lancashire’s second innings precisely where they had left off on Saturday. Resuming on 45 for three, the home side lost their last seven wickets for the addition of 39 runs and their last six for 21 in 10.1 overs.
Many headlines will be claimed by Sharma, who took three wickets in his first over, four wickets in ten balls and finished with career-best figures of four for 17 in 4.4 overs. But as on Friday, this was a combined effort which reflected well on all four members of Leus du Plooy’s attack.
Higgins took the first wicket of the day and his fourth of the innings when he had Marcus Harris caught behind by Harry Duke for one in the second over of the day. Toby Roland-Jones then trapped Michael Jones for 10 and bowled nightwatchman Mitch Stanley for eight when the ball hit the outside of the very top of the off-stump bail and that caused the leg-stump bail to topple.
That left Lancashire desperately placed on 64 for six but the real drama was yet to come. Brought on to replace Roland-Jones at the Brian Statham End, Sharma had Michael Hurst caught at slip by Higgins for seven with his first ball, Tom Hartley caught behind for a golden duck with his second and Tom Bailey pouched at slip by du Ploy with his sixth. Next over, Sharma completed his career-best return when Chris Green skied him to Roland-Jones at deep mid-on.
That ended Lancashire’s innings on 84, their lowest total against Middlesex at Old Trafford since 1935. The batsman who spent longest at the crease and faced most balls was Stanley, the nightwatchman, who took 71 minutes to accumulate eight runs off 51 deliveries.
Needing 117 to win, the Middlesex batsmen approached their task in a positive fashion from the outset.
All four of Lancashire’s seamers conceded significant runs and the visitors were 57 for two after 9.1 overs at lunch.
Middlesex will surely have regarded the two wickets they lost as acceptable collateral damage. Sam Robson was caught at midwicket by Bailey off George Balderson for 14 and Max Holden was strangled down the leg side, Hurst taking the catch off Stanley for nine.
But the visitors were surely less sanguine about the dismissal of du Plooy caught behind for one, five balls after the resumption. And when Caleb Falconer was also snaffled by Hurst off Stanley for a first-ball duck on his debut, Middlesex were 64 for four and Lancashire’s bowlers were threatening to pull off a miraculous victory.
Instead, Geddes reached a well-judged 50 off 47 balls with five fours and two pulled sixes, both off Stanley, and the end of an extraordinary match followed not long afterwards.
