Malan and Rossington forge Panthers win

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Middlesex 237-4 beat Yorkshire 236-8 by six wickets
(Middlesex 2 pts, Yorkshire 0 pts)

Superb batting from Dawid Malan and Adam Rossington earned Middlesex their first Yorkshire Bank 40 win of the season on a historic day at Radlett.

In the first-ever Middlesex one-day match played at the Hertfordshire club, the pair put on a stand of 135 and Panthers reached their target of 237 with more than four overs to spare.

Toby Roland-Jones took 4-44 and James Harris 3-54 as Middlesex restricted Yorkshire to 236-8 from their 40 overs, Australian international Phil Jacques top scoring for the Vikings with 81.

But it proved to be a low total as Malan cracked 10 fours and two sixes in his 88-ball innings of 96, while Rossington scored 79 not out to take the Panthers over the line.

Middlesex went into this match having lost two of their first three YB40 matches, the other being rained off without a ball bowled.

Roland-Jones picked up the early wickets of skipper Andrew Gale and fellow opener Rich Pyrah as Middlesex restricted Yorkshire’s run rate to below three after eight overs.

Gary Ballance struck four sixes, all off different bowlers, in an attempt to up the ante but his fireworks were ended by Gareth Berg, back at the ground where he had played his club cricket.

Jacques scored 10 fours in his 81 before he fell to Harris but Yorkshire were aided by some attacking shots from Adil Rashid (46 not out from 36 balls) and Andrew Hodd (21 from 20).

Panthers’ reply got off to the worst possible start when Paul Stirling edged behind to the second ball of the innings.

Malan and Joe Denly responded with some shots to the fence in the first 10 overs that quickly saw Middlesex get ahead of the required run rate.

However Yorkshire hit back with two quick wickets. First, Denly was dismissed by England bowler Tim Bresnan and in the next over Eoin Morgan – on his first Middlesex appearance of the season – was out for a first ball duck.

That left the Panthers on 66-3 in the 12th over but brought Rossington together with Malan – and they forged a partnership which proved to be match-winning.

After a slow start, they pushed on in the middle overs and their 135-run stand came from 112 deliveries to take the game away from Yorkshire.

By the time Malan was caught behind off Bresnan, agonisingly four short of his century, they had brought the required rate down to less than four an over.

Neil Dexter arrived for the final push although fittingly it was Rossington who secured the win, albeit with a leg bye.

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