Seamers skittle Foxes’ top order
LEICESTERSHIRE ALL OUT FOR 149 WITH MIDDLESEX ON 142-2 AT CLOSE
SHAHEEN Afridi and Tom Helm took three wickets apiece as Middlesex’s potent seam attack shone again on the opening day of their LV= Insurance County Championship clash against Leicestershire at Lord’s, writes Ben Kosky.
The Seaxes, who dismissed Glamorgan cheaply twice to secure an innings victory last week, bowled their visitors out for 149, with Afridi repeating his debut feat from Cardiff by striking twice in as many balls to wreck the Foxes’ top order.
The Pakistan paceman finished with figures of three for 54, while Helm bettered that return with three for 23.
Mark Stoneman cemented Middlesex’s advantage with an unbeaten 80 to steer his side to 142 for two at the close, a deficit of only seven.
With cloud overhead, it was little surprise when home skipper Peter Handscomb opted to bowl after winning the toss – and his bowlers quickly proved the wisdom of that decision by reducing Leicestershire to 55 for six before lunch.
Afridi captured the first three wickets as Hassan Azad nudged low to first slip and Colin Ackermann, hanging the bat out, dragged his first delivery onto the stumps before Louis Kimber was bowled by a ball that nipped back.
Toby Roland-Jones, having beaten
the bat several times without reward, switched ends and prised out the stubborn Sam Evans, caught behind after lasting an hour and a half for only nine runs.
Helm also bowled with pace and venom from the Nursery End, collecting wickets either side of the interval and alternating with Ethan Bamber (2-23), whose steady line accounted for Harry Swindells before Chris Wright was clean bowled.
However, last man Beuran Hendricks (22) played some productive shots, surviving a sharp slip chance off Luke Hollman and clubbing both the leg-spinner and Afridi to the fence as he and Callum Parkinson (25 not out) built a partnership of 39.
That stand, the highest of the innings, eventually ended when Hendricks was bowled swinging at Hollman and missing, but it had at least given the Foxes some impetus going into the field. Wright immediately found the edge of Sam Robson’s bat and, although the ball dropped narrowly short of third slip, he and Hendricks initially kept Middlesex’s opening pair under a tight rein.
Stoneman threw off the shackles in the 10th over, doubling the total with a succession of boundaries off Hendricks and strode towards his half-century, dispatching Wiaan Mulder for four more through the covers to reach the landmark.
Ed Barnes made the breakthrough, pinning Robson (16) leg before – and Leicestershire might also have removed Robbie White without scoring, Ackermann dropping a chance off Wright at second slip.
Having taken 40 minutes to get off the mark, White advanced to 23 before Mulder had him caught in the slips off the final ball of the day’s play.