Essex v Middlesex: Score and match report

Match scores (Chelmsford)

Essex won by an innings and 34 runs

Middlesex 1st inns: 246 (Stirling 77, Eskinazi 66, Malan 60; Harmer 5-77, Porter 2-58, Amir 2-53)

Middlesex 2nd inns: 262 (Compton 120, Stirling 55; Harmer 9-95)

Essex 1st inns: 542-3 dec (Browne 221, Cook 193, Chopra 100*)

Day four report

Simon Harmer took nine for 95 to lead Essex to a dramatic penultimate-over victory against Middlesex and extend their lead at the top of the Specsavers County Championship.

The South African off-spinner's match figures of 14 for 172 was his second 14-wicket haul in successive matches, his fourth successive five-wicket return, and raised his season's tally to 47 Championship wickets to date.

When he trapped Steven Finn lbw and wheeled away in triumph, there was a maximum of eight balls remaining in the game.

Harmer was given a standing ovation when he left the field after claiming his career best bowling figures as Essex won by an innings and 34 runs.

It gave Essex their third successive Championship victory but for long periods of the final day, it looked as if Nick Compton was going to save the game for a Middlesex side who have now lost two of their last three matches.

Compton batted nearly all day for 120 after six hours and 20 minutes at the crease. When he departed, the sixth of Harmer's wickets, and Chelmsford bathed in floodlight, there were nine overs to go and Middlesex were 252 for six, chasing 296 to make Essex bat again.

But four wickets went down in 27 balls as Essex recorded their second innings victory on the trot. Compton shared a fourth-wicket stand of 153 with Paul Stirling that looked as if it would take the game away from Essex. 

The pair were immovable for 55 overs as Essex used seven bowlers, some of them rarely seen, in an attempt to split them.

However, they did themselves no favours by twice putting down Stirling to comparatively easy chances.

Harmer made an immediate breakthrough with the first ball after Middlesex had gone through 13 overs unscathed overnight. Nick Gubbins pushed forward to try and kill the turn and only managed to loop it into Alastair Cook's hands at first slip.

Stevie Eskanazi then edged another which turned in on the batsman; it hit Cook in the chest, but he was able to scoop the earth-bound ball across for Varun Chopra to dive full-length and take the catch at leg slip.

In his next over, Harmer had Dawid Malan playing back as if to cut, only to miss the ball completely and lose his bails. 

Middlesex were 51 for three with around 87 overs still to negotiate. Compton played watchfully, though when Harmer strayed fractionally off-line, the ball was pulled firmly to the midwicket boundary on his way to an 111-ball half-century.

Stirling received his first let-off on 19 when Cook spilled an edge off Paul Walter and he should have gone in Harmer's first over of the second session when one popped up to Dan Lawrence at short leg and fell to the grass.

Compton reached three-figures from 232 balls when he turned Harmer to midwicket shortly before the end of the second session.

When the final hour was signalled at 8pm, five more wickets were required and Middlesex needed 49 runs to pass the 296 to make Essex bat again.

After Compton's departure, the furthest of Essex's fielders was 20 yards from the bat. As the game entered its denouement, Ryan Higgins edged Harmer to slip, and in the same over had Ollie Rayner lbw as 261 for six became 261 for eight in the space of four balls.

A third wicket went down for no additional score as Lawrence prevented Harmer taking all 10 wickets when he had Toby Roland-Jones lbw.

There were six minutes of the last hour remaining, and two minutes on the clock when Finn played a half-hearted shot and was out lbw, handing Essex victory.

Day three report

Alastair Cook hit 193 and Nick Browne 221 in a record first-wicket stand of 373 against champions Middlesex on day three of Essex's day-night Specsavers County Championship match at Chelmsford.

And, as daylight turned to twilight, Varun Chopra set up the hosts' declaration with a big-hitting 100 not out from 75 balls, which included six sixes, all off Ollie Rayner. 

Essex declared on 542 for three, setting Middlesex 147 just to make the Division One leaders bat again.

Openers Nick Gubbins and Nick Compton survived a torrid 13 overs under the floodlights against Mohammad Amir and Jamie Porter, and finished on 27 without loss, but the visitors - 246 all out in their first innings - must bat resolutely throughout the final day to avoid a second defeat in three games.

It was Cook's third century of the season - two runs short of his highest Championship score - while for Browne it was the first hundred of a campaign that started slowly but is now moving into overdrive.

The partnership was finally ended after six and a half hours, just before tea, when Cook pushed forward to Rayner and was snaffled by Stevie Eskinazi at slip. Cook had faced 280 balls and hit 26 fours.

Cook, who was dropped on 48 on Monday evening, survived another scare even before play started when James Foster parried the ball into his face during catching practice. 

The former England captain fell to his knees, and stayed there for several minutes while medical staff checked his jaw. However, he was back in the middle 35 minutes later to resume his innings.

Like his partner, Browne had a let-off on 46 when he slashed at Toby Roland-Jones outside off-stump and Steven Finn dropped a relatively easy chance at third slip. 

Browne took advantage and reached his fourth Championship fifty in five innings with his sixth four, pushed through the covers.

Cook glided Ryan Higgins to fine leg for the single that took him to three figures. His century, which included 17 fours, took 134 balls. 

That was 16 balls fewer than Browne required for his half-century, and told the story of the partnership.

When the stand reached 372 the duo beat the total for any wicket in an Essex-Middlesex encounter, the previous mark set by Mike Gatting and Justin Langer at Southgate in 1998.

Browne followed Cook to his century when he pulled Paul Stirling through deep extra cover for four. It was his 13th boundary and came from 240 balls.

A two to mid-wicket by Browne off Higgins took the pair beyond 316 - the previous all-time highest Essex opening stand, set by Graham Gooch and Paul Prichard against Kent on the same ground in 1994 - and earned a round of applause from a knowledgeable and appreciative crowd. 

The attack continued as Browne swept Rayner for his 18th boundary to reach his 150 from 323 balls. 

After Cook's departure, the otherwise circumspect Browne allowed himself the luxury of chipping Dawid Malan over the bowler's head for six to enter the 190s. And a push into the onside brought up his double-hundred from 368 balls.

Chopra, the substitute replacing the England Lions-bound Tom Westley, followed suit with a six off Rayner over cow corner.

Compton might have ended his rampage on 39, but he dropped a diving chance on the mid-wicket boundary.

Chopra's fifty arrived with an identical six off Rayner and took just 51 balls, but he was not finished there.

Browne's seven-hour 32-minute marathon ended when he hit Rayner into the covers and was caught by Malan. Rayner bore the brunt of Chopra's onslaught and finished with two for 152 from 29 overs.

Dan Lawrence (two) lasted just five balls before moving away from his stumps to give himself room, and being bowled by Higgins.

The declaration arrived after Chopra brought up his three figures, but Middlesex's openers stood firm in the 13 overs before stumps.

Day two report

Rain meant no play was possible on the second day of the day-night match at Chelmsford, where Specsavers County Championship leaders Essex waited in vain to resume their first-innings response to Middlesex's 246.

Essex's not-out overnight batsmen, Alastair Cook and Nick Browne, twice buckled and then unbuckled their pads on a day of frustration at the County Ground. On both occasions when play was about to begin the rain arrived with a vengeance.

Cook and Browne had reduced Middlesex's first-innings lead to 140 in the twilight of the first evening with an unbroken first-wicket stand of 106 in 36 overs.

Varun Chopra will replace Tom Westley in the Essex side on Wednesday, with the latter linking up with the England Lions.

Day one report

Simon Harmer became this season's leading Division One wicket-taker with a third successive five-wicket haul as Essex skittled Middlesex for 246 in the day-night Specsavers County Championship match at Chelmsford.

The South African off-spinner had just 19 wickets to his name a week ago but has doubled that in three innings after following up his career-best match figures of 14 for 128 against Warwickshire with five Middlesex wickets for 77.

It had looked unlikely Harmer would have much impact when Mohammad Amir and Jamie Porter were swinging the pink ball prodigiously in the first 20 minutes and Middlesex were two for two. But the ball suddenly softened and for a time it looked as if the batsmen were going to get on top.

Despite being thumped for sixes when Paul Stirling was well set, Harmer reeled in the reigning champions' middle order with three wickets in 12 balls at a personal cost of one run to reduce Middlesex from 225 for six to 231 for nine.

Harmer did put down Stirling from a routine slip chance when Stirling was on 23; nine balls later the Irishman had reached 49. A further three and he had his third fifty, to go with one hundred, in his last five Championship innings.

Dawid Malan and Stevie Eskinazi put on 124 for the third wicket at a steady pace but it was during Stirling's 50-ball 77, which included eight fours and five sixes, that it looked as though Middlesex might post something of note.

Instead Harmer hit back and by the close of play, at 9.17pm, Essex had taken a sizeable chunk out of Middlesex's score with Alastair Cook and Nick Browne putting on an unbroken stand of 106 for the first wicket from 36 overs. Cook was on 64, Browne 40.

The day-night experiment attracted a Chelmsford crowd that peaked around 2,200, slightly higher than usual, with the office staff replacing those who had trains to catch as the evening wore on.

Middlesex gave Essex first go with the pink ball and must have regretted the decision almost immediately. Amir took his first Essex wicket with the sixth ball of his opening spell, Nick Gubbins trapped lbw, and five balls later Nick Compton snicked Porter behind.

Malan, captaining in the absence of James Franklin due to a back complaint, led the Middlesex recovery with Eskinazi and both reached their fifties from successive balls in the over after the first break.

Malan scrambled a single to mid-on from the 78th ball he faced, Eskinazi following up with a paddle-sweep for his eighth four from 85 balls.

Eskinazi, on 55, turned one through Dan Lawrence's hands at short leg before the third-wicket pair were finally parted after 33 overs when Harmer got one to straighten and take the outside of Malan's bat. Malan faced 93 deliveries for his 60.

Eskinazi followed soon after, edging Porter to Cook at first slip for a 111-ball 66, and Amir pinned John Simpson lbw on the back foot as Middlesex slipped from 126 for two to 158 for five in five overs.

Stirling counter-attacked Harmer to great effect while at the other end Ryan Higgins contributed just six to a sixth-wicket stand of 61 before skying Harmer to Tom Westley running around to mid-off.

Stirling hit three sixes in six balls, hooking two in an over from Paul Walter and lifting Harmer straight back over the bowler's head, but the one-man assault ended when he turned Harmer into Ryan ten Doeschate's hands at cover.

Ollie Rayner left in similar fashion in the same over, and Harmer had a fifth wicket in his next when Tim Murtagh fell lbw. The innings ended in its 60th over when Steven Finn patted the ball back to Ravi Bopara.

Cook and Browne went along serenely in reply, with the England opener making the most of the experience of batting in the twilight. He was dropped in the covers by Gubbins off Finn on 48 before bringing up his fifty from 67 balls, nine of them hit to the boundary.