Rogers and Robson lead Middlesex fight back

After being asked to follow on, Middlesex’s batsman have fought back superbly and put themselves in a good position heading into the final day of the Championship game at Lord’s.

Centuries from openers Chris Rogers and Sam Robson have turned the game on its head after the Surrey bowlers toiled on Day 3, with the home side closing on 283-2, a lead of 111.

We did the first job right this morning, when de Bruyn had Collymore LBW with only 5 more runs added to the overnight score of 161. Smith was left with the decision of whether to enforce the follow on or not. The weather was more conducive to seam bowling than the previous two days, and that seemed to sway it for Smith who stuck them back in. Before a ball was bowled, I said that we should not enforce it, and instead bat them out of the game before sticking them in late this evening.

Apart from a couple of stifled LBW appeals, Robson and Rogers were not troubled early on, as run scoring began to look much easier, as it usually seems to do once you have been forced to follow on. Rain brought an early lunch, but afterwards the batsman looked even more at ease at the crease, with Robson racing to his half century, and Middlesex towards parity.

Smith rang the changes in the afternoon session, but as it went on, the follow on decision increasingly looked like the wrong one, as the sun came out in North London, and the pitch looked flatter. Rogers also went to his 50, and caught up with his batting partner as they went to tea on 161-0, trailing by just the 7 runs.

There were no immediate rewards for us after tea, as a Robson single off of Dernbach took his side into the lead with all 10 wickets intact, and it was Rogers who won the race to 100 with a 3 off Linley, before Robson joined him on three figures an over later. They continued deep into the final session, before a wicket finally came about to break the record opening partnership for Middlesex against Surrey, when de Bruyn had Robson for the second time in the game. That wasn’t the only wicket we got, as Dernbach had Denly caught in the slips with the second new ball just before the close.

So after getting ourselves into a great position yesterday, today couldn’t have gone any worse for us. The bowlers worked hard, but Robson and Rogers batted superbly. I know hindsight is a wonderful thing in life, but I always thought that we should have not enforced it. I don’t want to sound smug, and I don’t want to be right, because I was desperate for us to win this game, but it looks increasingly unlikely now.

I would have been the first person to praise Smith and the bowlers if the decision paid off, but sadly it hasn’t. You can say that it was a positive move from Smith, as we had drawn our first two games, but I still think we would have won by getting an unassailable lead and bowling at them for 3 and a half sessions, with the weather set fair for tomorrow.

A draw now obviously looks the most likely result, unless we can roll them over before lunch as their middle order isn’t in the greatest knick, or they could even dangle the carrot at us midway through the afternoon session, but that looks improbable.