{"id":3177,"date":"2026-05-02T17:08:49","date_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:08:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3177"},"modified":"2026-05-02T17:08:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-02T17:08:49","slug":"clypg17yw79oat_mediumrssat_campaignrss","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/?p=3177","title":{"rendered":"County Championship: Durham start well after Higgins hundred"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Ryan Higgins struck his first century for 20 months before Ben Raine hit back with five wickets on a truncated day two of Middlesex’s County Championship clash with Durham at Lord’s.<\/b><\/p>\n

All-rounder Higgins had not passed three figures since August 31, 2024, but ended the drought with a pugnacious 131, sharing a seventh-wicket stand of 125 with Zafar Gohar (56), who passed 50 for the second innings running.<\/p>\n

However, Raine gained reward for his nagging accuracy with two further wickets to add to his three from day one as he returned 5-58, the 18th five-wicket haul of his first- class career, as the hosts were bowled out for 430.<\/p>\n

England hopeful Emilio Gay then led the reply with a stylish unbeaten 75 at almost a run a ball as the visitors raced to 135-1 though Middlesex may live to rue dropping him at slip on 24. <\/p>\n

The morning belonged exclusively to Middlesex, who resumed on 272-6 and Higgins gave their effort early impetus, employing the hook shot to good effect against Matthew Potts.<\/p>\n

Gohar was initially scratchy, spending 30 balls over his first three runs, before being given a life when David Bedingham dropped him off a flashing edge at second slip.<\/p>\n

Freed up by the reprieve Gohar went on the attack depositing short balls first from Kasey Aldridge and then Luke Robinson into the Grandstand.<\/p>\n

At the other end, Higgins, whose early season batting form had been poor by his standards inched his way through the 90s before unfurling a lovely cover drive to reach his century.<\/p>\n

Gohar’s 50 came shortly after lunch courtesy of a cracking straight drive, but Raine made sure he did not remain for much longer, uprooting off stump as he swung across the line.<\/p>\n

As so often after a long stand, Higgins’ magnificent effort came to an end soon afterwards, Raine completing his five-fer aided by a tremendous grab at slip by Aldridge low to his left.<\/p>\n

The innings came to an end with Robinson’s maiden first-class wicket, Toby Roland-Jones trapped in front for a duck.<\/p>\n

Inspired by his batting, Higgins soon struck ball in hand, trapping Alex Lees lbw, but that brought Gay to the crease.<\/p>\n

The left-hander picked up where he had left off against Lancashire last week, driving and cutting with authority from the get-go.<\/p>\n

Gay had a stroke of luck on 24 when Sebastian Morgan found the edge only for the usually reliable Sam Robson to shell the routine chance at slip.<\/p>\n

Scare survived, Gay forged on, his eighth four bringing him to 50 in only 46 balls, while another of those on the England radar, Ben McKinney (46*) proved an excellent foil in their century stand.<\/p>\n

Gay hoisted Gohar for six in gathering gloom before bad light and rain brought a halt with 17 overs left un-bowled.<\/p>\n

Report by ECB Reporters’ Network, supported by Rothesay.<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ryan Higgins struck his first century for 20 months before Ben Raine hit back with five wickets on a truncated day two of Middlesex’s County Championship clash with Durham at Lord’s. All-rounder Higgins had not passed three figures since August 31, 2024, but ended the drought with a pugnacious 131, sharing a seventh-wicket stand of<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3178,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[399,6,31],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3177","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","category-sports","category-us"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3177"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3177\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3177"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3177"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/owspakistan.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3177"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}