Destructive:

Was that the best two days cricket that Middlesex had played all season. “Definitely,” said the centurion Dawid Malan. “We decided we had to start playing more as a team. I think it's about self-belief. We started the first day and suddenly Pedro [Collins] and Murts [Tim Murtagh] just cleaned them up. Suddenly we got that self-belief. If you look at our players, we’ve got decent players – we haven’t got world beaters, but we’ve got decent players and if we all perform well enough as a team together, we’re going to win games. It just proves what we done today.”

Surrey could not bat as badly as in the first innings, or so it seemed, especially after their openers got a fine start, chasing Middlesex’s imposing total of 423 all out. They trailed by 256 on the first innings. They needed a miracle to stand a chance of avoiding defeat, let alone setting a target for Middlesex to have to chase. Toby Roland-Jones, playing just his third Championship game, was determined that would not happen.

The young medium fast-bowler recently bowled alongside England’s Steven Finn in Middlesex’s Second Eleven. The benefits were obvious. Fresh from his four wicket haul against Sussex at Uxbridge last week, the bowler, listed as medium-fast was too hot for even the best Surrey batsmen to handle. He conceded 11 runs in his first 4 overs before taking his first wicket.

By close of play he had exposed Surrey’s tail. He was given a standing ovation as he led the team off at Lord’s. Roland-Jones ended the day with victory in sight having reduced Surrey to 110 for 6 with figures of 5 for 29 from ten overs. In a devastating spell of slightly more than 4 overs Roland-Jones ripped the heart out of Surrey’s second innings, taking 5 for 6, including the prized wicket of former Middlesex stalwart Mark Ramprakash for just 6.

“You’re always going to have bowl to good players,” Roland-Jones said. “It’s just a matter of forgetting who you’re bowling at and remembering what you are good at and doing what you do really – just focus on yourself and hopefully it will be good enough. I had a good day – by the far the best of my Middlesex career.”

Comfort and Collapse:

Openers Tom Lancefield and Steven Davies compiled a stand of 75, seeing off the new-ball pair of Pedro Collins and Tim Murtagh, who had ripped through their line-up in the first innings, taking nine of the wickets to fall.  Davies was the first to fall, caught behind by John Simpson. Roland-Jones took the wicket and greeted new batsman Mark Ramprakash with a bouncer.

Davies took 54 balls to compile 43 runs with eight boundaries. He was quickly followed by Lancefield without adding to the total. He was caught by Neil Dexter for 24. Hamilton-Brown is having a wretched match. First he misjudged the pitch and conditions yesterday and decided to bat first – big mistake. Then he made a golden duck.

It didn’t get any better for Surrey’s young captain today, dropping at least one gilt-edged chance at first slip and making a single in the second innings, caught by his opposite number, Dexter, to give the impressive Roland-Jones his second wicket. He didn’t have a long wait for his third wicket. Usman Afzaal edged him to Dexter for 6. Surrey had gone from a comfortable 75 without loss to four down for just seven runs and Ramprakash had yet to get off the mark.

“Toby bowled unbelievably well,” said an appreciative Malan. “We know Toby can bowl like that. He knows he can bowl like that. It’s just about him going and doing it. He will be a seriously good bowler in his career if continues to work hard. I think Toby showed us, especially on this wicket if we have a problem after we had a poor start this evening, how to bowl, which areas to bowl and he asked a lot of questions of serious batsmen.” None more so than the greatest county player still wielding a bat, Mark Ramprakash.

Full Swing:

Roland-Jones was in full swing now, inducing an edge from Ramprakash too. Simpson made no mistake. Surrey’s stalwart was on his way back to the pavilion for just 6. 91 for 5 became six down without adding to the score as Matthew Spriegel was magnificently caught by the excellent Malan low at first slip for 0.

Roland-Jones had a 5-for in just his third Championship match and against the old enemy and he had done it by ripping through the heart of Surrey’s batting. “I was telling him when he had three four wickets to go to the next stage – keep going and don’t wait for the person behind him to take the next wicket and look for success,,” former West Indies fast-bowler Pedro Collins said. “Always look to do better and he did that. He put in a very good effort and hopefully that is the first 5-for of many.”

Surrey had lost 6 wickets for just 16 runs on the same pitch that had produced two half-centuries and a century for Middlesex. So what had happened? “Good pressure,” Collins said. “We applied good pressure – the field placing. The captain was brilliant in setting the field according to the bowlers. He gave us what we wanted and we didn’t let him down. Some players played rash shots – come at the ball in a hurry in an attempt to play. We will learn from this experience and we can just go and move on from strength to strength.”

Dawid Malan agreed. “I think we were hoping for it to swing like it did in the first innings instead of bowling up there with a specific plan,” he said. “I think Toby bowled the right length. We bowled very good length on day one when we bowled them out, but this afternoon we ran up trying to bowl a little bit shorter and they capitalised on that. I think the way Toby bowled – his length – he showed us how to bowl on this wicket, which is the way it should be bowled.”