Recent weeks have provided scant evidence that today’s cricketers are capable of playing within themselves. Yet for the second time in this match, Dawid Malan, one of the domestic game’s sweetest strikers, has been risk averse, delicately dabbing and carefully nurdling Middlesex into a position of dominance on a pitch turning and bouncing, often sharply and unpredictably.
Malan bettered Friday’s 93 with a century that may just have dragged the game beyond Sussex, who will be chasing upwards of 260 on this pitch’s fifth day, a prospect that will delight Middlesex’s spinners, Ravi Patel and Ollie Rayner, and bother Sussex, whose relegation scrap is desperately in need of a win to match those around them.
The visitors, to their credit, tried everything to stop Malan, including fashioning a homespun attack full of twirlers from a collection of part-timers. Ashar Zaidi took timely wickets, Luke Wells toiled and Ollie Robinson – normally a gutsy seamer – proved what an adaptable, chutzpah-heavy cricketer he is by bowling 5.1 overs of very passable off-spin, the second of which accounted for both John Simpson and James Harris. With the day’s final ball, Toby Roland-Jones looked rather surprised to be given leg-before to become Robinson’s third spun scalp.
Malan arrived at the crease shortly before lunch after an impressive 77 from Sam Robson – who picked up where he left off on the second evening, cutting beautifully and punishing anything on his legs – was ended by the introduction of spin, with Zaidi’s first ball taking his edge. Earlier, Nick Gubbins, who had weathered a working over from Steve Magoffin, was given out caught off his sleeve.
By lunch Nick Compton had got himself out too, bowled round the legs by a turner from Zaidi and, shortly after, James Franklin – who was uncharacteristically skittish – became Magoffin’s 500th first-class wicket as Ed Joyce took a tumbling catch at slip with the lead only 71. A calm head was required to guide a long tail through choppy waters. At no stage did Malan look ill-suited to the task.
He played with poise when sharing 78 with Simpson, who hit Chris Liddle for a flat six and drove Magoffin beautifully down the ground, before having his edge taken by a fine, full, flighted off-break from Robinson, who then forced Harris – who recorded a pair on his requested promotion to No7 – to dab his third ball to slip.
With that latest hiccup, and the game open once more, Malan shared 34 with Rayner, and 77 with Roland-Jones, who was typically upright and brusque. Leaving when possible and stifling ample spin, Malan’s 50 contained two fours and his century seven, which demonstrates not only his exploitation of space with soft hands but the manner in which he grew into his innings, which completes a set of three centuries against Sussex this season, one in each format.
Such has been the quality of Malan’s innings and considering the track and the chance of showers towards the end of a sun-soaked match that Middlesex surely already have enough runs. Now it is the Middlesex spinners’ turn to win this fine, fluctuating match.
