Middlesex keep promotion bid on track, led by leaving Mark Stoneman’s ton

After dominating bottom-of-the-table Derbyshire, Middlesex are on track for the win they need to keep their Vitality County Championship promotion challenge alive heading into the final week of the season. Opener Mark Stoneman made his seventh century for the county before announcing he would be leaving at the end of the season.

After dismissing Derbyshire for 173 on Tuesday, Middlesex responded with 358, thanks to career-best 80 from Josh De Caires and 68 from Max Holden. This was achieved on a turning, dry pitch where Derbyshire’s spinners shared six wickets, and 17-year-old fast bowling prospect Harry Moore impressed with 3 for 55 in just his second first-class match.

Derbyshire ended their second innings on 74 for 3, having lost two wickets in the opening five overs and another off the final ball of the day, leaving them needing 186 to force Middlesex to bat again.

The 37-year-old Mark Stoneman, who started his career with Durham and earned 11 Test caps, relocated from Surrey to Middlesex in 2021 but has not received a contract offer for 2025.

“Unfortunately, before the last game I was told I was being released at the end of the season,” Stoneman stated. “The boys have been a huge support system for me these past several weeks, so it feels fantastic to come in and play well and win this game for them.

“I’ve lost out on several opportunities to profit while the other people have cashed in, which is annoying. You are defined by your statistics, and I suppose that altogether, mine have fallen short. However, I want to end the season with a bang. I’m excited about the game more than I’ve ever been, so it feels nice to win this one.”

In order to strive for a complete set of batting points, Middlesex appeared well-positioned with 125 for 1 overnight, having secured maximum bowling bonus points on the first day.

Due in large part to a morning session in which Derbyshire’s spinners claimed four wickets and the better part of 36 overs yielded just 82 runs, they were only able to take three of the five on offer.

Four wickets fell for forty-five from 162 for one. Holden, who had a 162-run partnership with Stoneman, was the first to go, bowled behind his legs by Jack Morley, a left-arm spinner on loan from Lancashire who would end up with three wickets for 76.

Stoneman was brilliant, reaching a nearly impossible century from 170 balls with 17 fours, but he had little control over what happened at the other end when off-spinner Alex Thomson hit Leus Du Plooy in front, his first wicket since the move. Thomson then bowled Ryan Higgins middle and leg with a sharply turned ball.

Joining for the final over of the session, Derbyshire skipper David Lloyd was rewarded for his off-spin bowling with his third delivery, sending Jack Davies to second slip.

Following lunch, Stoneman was finally undone by another sharply turning ball, losing his middle stump to Thomson at 234 for 6. De Caires and Luke Hollman then launched a counterattack, but one that was assisted by Wayne Madsen at slip, which saw De Caires dropped off Morley for 21.

Following that reprieve, runs started to come more easily off the second new ball; De Caires and Hollman eventually added 74, 53 of which came after De Caires’s escape.

Moore, the England Under-19 player who is energising Derbyshire’s coaching staff, terminated their partnership with a pace advantage over Hollman and a top-edged hook that Toby Roland-Jones was caught off.

Moore scored his third when ‘keeper Brooke Guest dived to his right to remove Ethan Bamber’s edge, and De Caires was leg before Morley tried a reverse hit.

After Harry Came and Guest were leg before to balls well pitched up, Roland-Jones, with figures of 5 for 34 in the first innings, soon had Derbyshire in trouble at 16 for 2. Then, Madsen and Mitch Wagstaff, replacing Luis Reece due to a concussion, decided to meet attack with attack, adding 42 in four overs before Middlesex took action to regain control. With what turned out to be the final ball of the day, Hollman’s leg-spin had Wagstaff caught behind.

Reece, who was absent, bowled and batted on the first day but later complained of feeling sick. This was explained away as a delayed reaction after he was involved in a small car accident the previous weekend. According to replacement protocols, the stand-in must be a comparable player.

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Wagstaff, 21, is a left-handed top-order batsman who meets the requirements on one of those points, but he was not allowed to bowl since he is a leg-spinner rather than a seamer.