Impressive Murtagh Puts Hampshire On The Back Foot

Tim Murtagh took 4 for 33 to spearhead an impressive Middlesex bowling performance and leave Hampshire facing an uphill task to salvage a positive result at stumps on day two of the Specsavers County Championship match at Merchant Taylors’ School.

Tumbled out for 131 in reply to Middlesex’s 467 for 3 declared, Hampshire then slid to 62 for 3 when forced to follow on with Murtagh immediately picking up another wicket and James Fuller taking 2 for 24.

Sean Ervine was Hampshire’s first innings top scorer with just 31 as Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones, who flattened the tail to finish with 4 for 49, ran amok under grey skies in north-west London.

Hampshire’s second innings began with Murtagh removing Will Smith with the second ball of the opening over, caught at the wicket, and Fuller then had Michael Carberry well held at second slip for 21 before clean bowling Ervine for 1.

It was hard to fathom, as the wickets tumbled, that earlier in the day Middlesex had declared their own first innings on such an imposing total after thumping a further 125 runs in just 80 minutes after resuming on 342 for 3 with John Simpson rushing to 100 not out and Adam Voges ending up with an unbeaten 160.

Initially, Murtagh took 3 for 17 in 12 overs either side of lunch to fatally undermine Hampshire’s reply and both Fuller and Ollie Rayner chipped in with wickets before Murtagh returned to wrap up the innings in tandem with a hostile Roland-Jones.

Fuller picked up a first championship wicket for Middlesex when he had Liam Dawson brilliantly caught for 21 by Sam Robson diving to his left at gully, in his sixth over.

And, just before tea, off spinner Rayner had 19-year-old Joe Weatherley caught off bat and pad for 4 on his championship debut, leaving Ervine and Adam Wheater to offer the only remaining resistance as the decline continued in the final session.

In seven overs’ batting before lunch, Hampshire lost Carberry for 4 to a catch at the wicket off Murtagh, and both the veteran seamer and his new ball partner, Roland-Jones, beat the bat regularly.

Both Smith and Adams fell to the metronomic Murtagh after the interval. Smith, on 12, edged to third slip while Adams was bowled for 19.

Roland-Jones had just been driven imperiously to the extra cover boundary by Wheater when the Hampshire keeper edged him behind on 22 and Murtagh ended Ervine’s resistance by finding another thin edge.

Tino Best hit his first ball to mid on and Roland-Jones was on a hat-trick when Mason Crane edged to first slip. Last man James Tomlinson kept that ball out, but was powerless to do anything but fend a vicious lifter to third slip as Roland-Jones wrapped up the innings in merciless fashion.

How different batting seemed at the start of day two when Simpson played with freedom and flair to complete the fifth first-class hundred of his career as he and Voges took their unbroken fourth wicket partnership to 174.

Wicketkeeper-batsman Simpson, on 28 overnight, sprinted to three figures with three sixes and 13 fours and scored 72 from 61 balls this morning. Voges, who resumed on 128 and batted in all for 315 balls, hitting 15 fours, immediately declared once Simpson went to his hundred with a pull for four off Tomlinson.