da bwin： Neil Dexter continued to put the memory of a freak pre-season injury behind himas his measured 112 put Middlesex into a commanding position against Derbyshireat Lord’s
da roleta： 11-May-2010
Scorecard
Neil Dexter continued to put the memory of a freak pre-season injury behind himas his measured 112 put Middlesex into a commanding position against Derbyshireat Lord’s.At the close of day two in this County Championship Second Divisionencounter, Dexter and Gareth Berg – who himself reached a brilliant run-a-ball125 – had swept Middlesex into a 170-run lead at 366 for 9. Their 202-run partnership, in just 39 overs, was a sixth-wicket record for Middlesex against Derbyshire.Dexter cracked a bone in the base of his spine early last month, when he fellheavily down some steps while putting out a bag of rubbish at his home inLondon, and missed Middlesex’s first four Championship games – all of which werelost.But the 25-year-old South African born former Kent batsman hit 80 inMiddlesex’s superb win at Sussex last week, his comeback match, and he and Bergdramatically turned this game around after seeing their side initially struggleto 126 for 5 in reply to Derbyshire’s 196.All-rounder Berg was the chief aggressor, at one stage hitting off-spinner GregSmith for a straight four and two legside sixes from successive balls, whiledebutant teenage left-arm spinner Chesney Hughes also came in for some fiercetreatment. Berg reached his hundred soon after Dexter, hitting three sixes and 10 foursfrom the 100 balls he faced to reach three figures.Dexter’s century took 166 balls, with 12 fours, and his three-and-a-half houreffort steadied Middlesex at a time when they could easily have gone the way oftheir opponents in cold, cloudy conditions that helped the seamers to nibble itaround.But Berg’s innings was also vital for Middlesex, as he took advantage ofDerbyshire’s three frontline seamers tiring, plus some poor back-up bowling. Theabsence from this game of flu victim Robin Peterson, their South Africaninternational left-arm spinner, has hit Derbyshire hard.Dexter eventually miscued a pull at Garry Park’s medium pace and was caught atpoint. He had faced 180 balls in all, hitting 14 fours. But Berg went on to hit14 fours as well as his three sixes.For the first half of the day there was no sign of the carnage to come, withMiddlesex quickly finishing off a Derbyshire first innings which resumed on 190for 9 and then themselves finding batting hard work against Tim Groenewald,Mark Footitt and Tom Lungley.Groenewald had Scott Newman lbw with the very first ball of the Middlesexinnings and England Test captain Andrew Strauss’s poor early-season formcontinued when he was squared up by Groenewald and edged to first slip. Straussnow has just 262 runs from 11 first-class innings at 23.81.Owais Shah nicked a good one from Lungley, and when the lively Footitt hadDawid Malan caught, slashing to square cover, and then swung a left-armer intoJohn Simpson’s pads to have him lbw, the match was evenly balanced. How quickly it changed, though, with Dexter and Berg giving Middlesex a great opportunity to win this game some time in the next two days.
