The exit began at around 4.30. For an hour brooding clouds had been gathering to the north and as they duly arrived over Scarborough, and the players left the field, initially because of bad light, the crowd grumbled their way towards the gate. Ten minutes later the rain arrived.
As far as Middlesex were concerned it was a timely intervention from the weather, for by that time, with the ball starting to dart around as it had not hitherto, and the visitors on 114 for two, Yorkshire had started to take a measure of control of the match. The players did return later, but for 21 balls only, with scarcely a spectator to see it, during which George Bailey and Steve Eskinazi added 16 runs before the light closed in once more, with Middlesex 276 adrift of Yorkshire.
For a while, during the afternoon, as the Middlesex openers Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins helped themselves in largely untroubled fashion to an opening stand of 87, it looked as if the away side might be on course to answer Yorkshire’s 406 in kind. The ball was coming nicely on to the bat and the Yorkshire seamers looked fast‑medium samey. Scarcely anything went past the bat and even Steve Patterson, all arms and legs it seems, who concedes runs grudgingly, began to do so at more than a dribble. Meanwhile, Jack Brooks, returning from injury, was pursuing his habitual full length from which he tends to trade punches in the hope of connecting with a haymaker and was getting driven.
When the off-spinner Azeem Rafiq was brought into the attack and promptly produced a maiden over, the crowd applauded as generously as they had all day, prompting the thought that only in cricket could such enthusiasm be shown for nothing whatsoever happening. Middlesex were cruising.
Then Brooks dragged his length back and banged one in short to Robson, who instinctively went for the pull shot. Perhaps he was deceived by a lower bounce than expected and was forced to adjust his shot. The top edge steepled towards Will Rhodes at midwicket, who back-pedalled and took the catch comfortably. Robson had looked in good order for his 40, which contained six fours and a six. Rhodes it was who three overs later, Brooks having been replaced, then dispatched Gubbins lbw for 43, a dismissal with which, judging by the batsman’s demeanour as he shrugged at his batting partner,as if pleading for a DRS review, and then trudged off, he was not over-enamoured.
Whether down to tide, cloud cover, or a combination of both, the ball had started to swing and seam for Tim Bresnan and Rhodes, so that Bailey, making his championship debut for Middlesex, had to summon all his resources to survive before a long-hop from Patterson, replacing Bresnan, was dispatched square to the boundary to an oath from the bowler. Another boundary, on-driven up the slope, seemed to settle Bailey further and he will resume on 19, as will Eskinazi.
Until the last two Yorkshire wickets added 72 , Middlesex had done well to peg them back, from 291 for five overnight to 334 for eight. Rhodes had already chopped Toby Roland-Jones on to his stumps by the time that Gary Ballance was finally dismissed for 132, stopping his shot and poking a gentle return catch to James Franklin. The Middlesex captain then claimed the wicket of Rafiq four balls later. Andy Hodd, first with Patterson and then Brooks, ran Middlesex a frustratingly merry dance, with Patterson stepping away to leg to try to flay Steve Finn through the off side.
When Finn finally located his stumps, Brooks promptly hooked him for six, scattering the Yorkshire members in the pavilion. Hodd, 37, edged a gentle catch to the solitary slip to end the innings.
