Captain Dexter takes late brace of wickets

Lord’s: Surrey, with five first-innings wickets in hand, trail Middlesex by 95 runs

Captain Neil Dexter took two wickets late in the day as Middlesex finally made the breakthrough against Surrey to put them five down for 161 at stumps on day two.

Their London-based rivals seemed in control on another day of attritional cricket at Lord’s after openers Jacques Rudolph and Steven Davies made an 85 partnership from just under 36 overs.

Davies went on to take a half-century but his fall was soon followed by the wickets of Mark Ramprakash and Zander de Bruyn in successive overs.

Dexter then returned to dismiss the dangerous threat of Tom Maynard in a successful evening session.

Middlesex frustrated Surrey for the first hour of play as they continued to hold on to their final first innings wicket.

Dawid Malan was eventually taken by Chris Jordan but his 88 helped take the home side to a score of 256 all-out from their opening stand, with Corey Collymore ending on five.

South African international Rudolph became the first wicket for Middlesex for 45 when he was stumped by wicketkeeper John Simpson.

But youngster Davies took his score to 62 from 141 balls as he continued the promising start with ex-England star Ramprakash.

Surrey were looking strong at 148-2 in the 69th over of their reply but Dexter ended Ramprakash’s stay on 17 runs before Toby Roland-Jones bagged the wicket of de Bruyn just four balls later.

The visitors’ score of 148-4 then became 153-5 when dangerous middle-order batsman Maynard was quickly dismissed for just three runs, and captain Rory Hamilton-Brown (8) and Jordan (1) must face the new ball early on day three on Saturday.

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