Ryan Higgins Scores First Lord’s 100 as Bowlers Struggle: Middlesex vs Glamorgan
Ryan Higgins scored his eighth first-class century, steering Middlesex towards safety in a high-scoring match between Middlesex and Glamorgan at Lord’s.
Higgins was the most recent player who benefited from a placid track that has only allowed eight wickets in 286 overs.
In his second stint with the Seaxes, the all-rounder exploited a benign Lord’s pitch to amass an undefeated 127. This allowed the hosts, under pressure from Glamorgan’s horrifying first-inning score of 620 for 3, to move close to avoiding the follow-on with their magnificent reply of 460 for 5.
He received good support from wicketkeeper Jack Davies, who scored sixty. The two combined for a fifth-wicket stand of 153, having joined forces while their team was still nearly 350 runs behind. After Mark Stoneman fell three short of a century, they made an effort.
With their score, the home team achieved a first-class match at Lord’s where they had not done so since July 2022, when they managed 485 against Sussex.
With a Kookaburra ball that soon became soft and a surface that offered them little assistance, Glamorgan’s bowlers persevered valiantly throughout the day, with Kiran Carlson becoming the first bowler in the contest to capture more than one wicket with a return of 2 for 89.
Whether the surface was placid or not, Middlesex started the day at 138 for 1, a massive 482 runs behind. Had a shy at the stumps from an excessively dangerous single resulted in a straight hit, they could have lost Stoneman in the opening over.
Both he and Max Holden, the other overnight hitter, were unfazed after that, with Holden reaching 50 without any problems. But Stoneman misjudged a drive with his hundred calling, finding only the hands of cover, ending a 120-run stand.
Also Read: Tom Haines Breaks Century Drought with Impressive 133
Large partnerships sometimes result in the other player falling fast after the first one. While Stoneman’s exit may have been due to a batter’s error, Holden fell victim to a well-executed strategy when he turned a ball off his hip and into the hands of a well-positioned Colin Ingram at leg-slip.
A Middlesex team that finished their 2023 campaign with just five batting points and was relegated would still have been nervous at 202 for 3.
But as was often the case in that campaign, Higgins was the one to step up, and together with rookie Leus De Plooy, they managed to hold them to lunch without suffering any further losses.
On the restart, Glamorgan was given the new ball and their hopes were raised when Mir Hamza’s ball, which did just enough to beat the bat and trap De Plooy in front, ended his innings at 37.
Higgins and Davies worked together to crush any doors that the Welsh county suspected were about to open. Higgins passed 50 for the 27th time in his career by driving and cutting with authority, combining aggressiveness with disciplined defense, and he was within sight of three figures by tea.
Robbie White and Joe Cracknell were Davies’ teammates when he was selected to replace the now-retired wicketkeeping icon John Simpson at Sussex. Davies gave strong assistance and scored his second first-class fifty early in the evening session.
Higgins had higher goals in mind, as he amassed his second hundred in Middlesex colours and his first at the Home of Cricket, smashing one to the short boundary at mid-wicket after tearing through the nineties with a magnificent straight drive.
When Carlson had Davies out for LBW, he was six runs short of setting a new career best, but the hosts had already closed to within 45 of the next wicket.
But Higgins is still in, and with just 11 needed to avoid having to bat first again, it appears like the honors will be shared before the fourth day.
