Backfoot:

Middlesex’s problems began early. Steven Finn took fourteen wickets in a losing effort against Worcestershire, but he had no luck at Lord’s. In a hostile first hour on Thursday morning he went past the outside edge regularly and Mike Powell, who went on to get 55 from 98 balls with ten fours, was dropped on 13 by John Simpson behind the stumps off the luckless Finn. After dismissing Mark Cosgrove for a duck Finn toiled without reward until the final delivery of Glamorgan’s innings.

Finn – the most recent debutant for England on the tour of Bangladesh – was a real handful. Along with Tim Murtagh, Middlesex has an impressive opening attack. “It definitely gives you confidence when you see Finny and Murts opening the bowling, putting all that effort in and getting good pace and bounce and going for hardly any runs,” said Berg. “It’s your job to come on next to fulfil that role.”

Powell rode his luck in an 84 runs partnership with opening batsman Gareth Rees. It was the first major partnership of the match – too early to be a turning point, but it helped to settle Glamorgan’s nerves on their way to a decent total of 315 all out. Rees’ knock of 38 from 133 balls with seven fours won’t win any awards, but it was a valuable effort. “I think it was harder for the boys batting earlier on,” said Glamorgan’s wicketkeeper/batsman Mark Wallace. “Gareth Rees and Michael Powell both played excellently. I think their contribution to the whole game has been a lot higher than those numbers possibly suggest.”

They saw off Finn and Murtagh after a hostile spell of fast bowling that deserved better reward. “The boys had done the hard work up front and allowed us to cash in a little bit as the ball got older and maybe the wicket flattened out a bit, so I think quite a lot of the plaudits need to go to lads higher up the order,” said Wallace.

It turned out to be an important phase of the match. With batting easier and the feared opening bowlers out of the attack, Glamorgan’s task of accumulating runs seemed easier, although Berg begs to differ. “I think after the first hour or so play the ball gets softer and bowlers tire,” said Berg. “There was a time when myself and Finny were running in as hard as we can. It was still going through and that’s when we got most of our wickets with the surprise bounce.”

Easier Conditions:

As tea approached, Middlesex lost their way. Shaun Udal set the tone as Wallace and Jim Allenby helped themselves to easy runs. “I think myself and Jim batting later on, it was a little bit easier,” said Wallace.” They hit the only sixes of the match in a partnership of 111. Allenby’s 95 ball vigil was ended by the leg-spin of Malan and he wants more.

“I think it gives me a huge opportunity to work on my bowling and actually get a few overs in and get a few more wickets for the team,” said Malan. “Obviously it’s something I want to work on quite hard, so I can potentially be a second spinner or even the first spinner at some stage in my career. If wickets are seamer friendly, I can play as the only spinner. That’s obviously in a few years time, but it’s something that I’m concentrating on.”

Malan trapped Allenby leg before wicket for 57, but not before he hit five fours and two sixes. “He’s a real asset to us,” Wallace said of Allenby. “He’s come to us from Leicester – back end of last year – and he offers us so much batting at six with his aggressive batting as you saw in the first innings and obviously with the ball as well.”

Wallace finished the day unbeaten on 73, which included ten fours and six, but nine wickets had fallen. He helped himself to six runs from Murtagh’s first over, including a four, but that left Waters to face Finn. It was a complete mismatch. Sam Robson took the catch – his second of the innings.

Abject:

The less said about Middlesex’s first innings the better. 160 all out on that pitch – almost any for that matter – was unacceptable. “I don’t think we had any partnerships in the first innings,” said Malan. “I think we all played a few loose shots in the first innings. It takes us until the second innings to realise how to play on it.”

The top five made a meagre 74 between them and Strauss’ share was 44 – the top-score. It was simply not good enough from the top order even though Middlesex was missing Neil Dexter, injured, and Owais Shah and Eoin Morgan on duty in the IPL (Indian Premier League). There were opportunities to stake a claim to a place in the team, but they were spurned.

Strauss looked a class apart, making his runs before he was fourth out after an uncharacteristic mistake, playing across the line, falling lbw to Allenby. “We didn’t really do ourselves any favours in the first innings here, getting bowled out for 160,” England’s captain told us. “We’ve played on two wickets that have done a bit and so I think we’ve probably just got to adjust our game plan a little bit in terms of what shots are high risk on those sorts of wickets. We probably haven’t got that right so far this year. I get the feeling that some of the early season rustiness is wearing off now which is encouraging, but it’s a shame – a disappointment really that it’s taken us two games to get into it.”

Scott Newman failed, with 7 and Sam Robson made a nine-ball duck. Malan got an inside edge onto his stumps for 17 and Adam London made just 6. Simpson made 32, Berg 16 and Udal 15, between six and eight in the order, over twice as many as the top five bar Strauss.

That told the story of Middlesex’s first innings. Batsmen contributed to their own downfall with poor shot selection, but Glamorgan’s bowlers deserve credit too. David Harrison had a five wicket haul, 5 for 62 from 18 overs, but Allenby was the pick of them, taking 4 for 29 from 13.2 overs, which included the prized wickets of Strauss and Malan, who was one of the few batsmen in form for Middlesex with a half century against Worcestershire.

“He’s a real asset to us obviously with the ball as well,” Wallace said about Allenby’s bowling heroics. “He darts it about dangerously and he’s a real good asset for us.”Glamorgan led by 165 runs on the first innings. Middlesex’s  innings was so poor they faced the indignity of being invited to follow-on by Glamorgan’s captain Jamie Dalrymple.