Roland-Jones stars as wickets tumble at Lord’s
Middlesex 233: Roland-Jones 53, Rayner 52*; Bailey 5-54
Lancashire 113-5: Croft 33*; Roland-Jones 2-30, Murtagh 2-33
Close, day one: Lancashire trail Middlesex by 120 runs
Toby Roland-Jones was Middlesex’s hero with both bat and ball but limped out of the action late on during an action-packed opening day at Lord’s.
The England paceman first dug his side out of trouble, hitting 53 and sharing an eighth-wicket stand of 102 with Ollie Rayner (52 not out), as Middlesex recovered from 89-7.
He then took 2-30, removing Haseeb Hameed and Shivnarine Chanderpaul, to help reduced Lancashire to 113-5 as 15 wickets fell inside 96 overs.
However, Roland-Jones failed to complete the third to last over of the day and went off for treatment.
The day started with two surprise decisions by Middlesex – after skipper James Franklin was dropped, his stand-in Adam Voges elected to bat after winning the toss.
His side promptly slumped to 28-4 before John Simpson (29) and Voges (18) added 52 either side of lunch.
The wickets continued to fall until Lancashire’s seamers lost their radar for an hour or so, enabling Rayner and Roland-Jones to counter-punch.
Lancashire then lost both openers to consecutive deliveries with only 22 on the board, and were 56-4 when skipper Steven Croft and Chanderpaul dug in to add 39, before Roland-Jones removed the veteran West Indian.
