Finn presents platform for Middlesex to build from

Every spell that Steven Finn sends down this season comes laden with caveats. Is it safe to suppose that he is really getting back to his best? Dare we whisper about a return to the Test squad with the Ashes around the corner?

Few players offer a more personal tale of the heights from which England have fallen in the past 18 months, from Finn's "unselectable" status during the 2013-14 Ashes to his marmalisation at the hands of Brendon McCullum in the recent World Cup. But at the age of 26 and with more than 200 international wickets to his name already, few players are more obviously part of the future.

And so, on a day like today, when 46 overs were lost to rain and when the wicket that emerged from under the hover-cover at 2pm was so green and lively that you could see the trail left by the groundsman's mower, it's dangerous to get drawn into unhelpful conclusions about his big-match readiness. What can be said, with equivocation, is that his first ten-over spell from the Pavilion End was as sharp as any that he has bowled all season. In that time he claimed each of the three wickets to fall, was convinced he'd grabbed a fourth, and bowled throughout with the nasty, splice-rattling length that marked him out as a wicket-taker from his earliest days on the scene.

"I've felt good all year, I've beat the edge all year, everything about my bowling has been good this year, in my opinion," said Finn. "But this was probably the best spell I've bowled all summer. People have been talking about how much pace I've lost but it certainly feels as though I'm getting the ball through all right. As long as I'm putting it in the right area with enough on it, hopefully the rewards will come."

It was Middlesex's first home game since their extraordinary contest against Durham earlier in the month, in which Finn had played Tony Lock to James Harris's Jim Laker, pounding out a tidy but unthreatening length while his team-mate's fuller natural length scooped him career-best figures of 9 for 34.

And as Harris had conceded in the midst of his endless round of interviews that day, "I'm sure that next time it'll be Finny bagging all the wickets and I'll be getting none-for." He was spot on. Harris bowled tidily but without reward, his closest shave coming with one vehement appeal for caught behind against Warwickshire's mainstay, Jonathan Trott. Today, it was Finn's turn, taking his tally for the Championship to 20 with the promise of more tomorrow to come.

"I've been a bit unlucky not getting wickets but most importantly it's felt like I've been bowling well," he said. "As long as we're winning games, it doesn't bother me. I'm controlling as much as I can, putting the ball in good areas and let the ball do the talking. I've been working up and down the same line all season, and this is the starting block for the summer for me to hopefully kick on, take some wickets, and see where that gets me."

Finn might have struck in his second over when Ateeq Javid pushed loosely outside off on 4, only for Neil Dexter at third slip to let a catchable chance slide past a dive to his right. But Varun Chopra, the Warwickshire captain, followed soon afterwards, to an even better effort from Ollie Rayner at second slip, who dived low to his left and clung on with one hand inches from the turf.

Jonathon Webb, making his Championship debut, appeared at No. 3 and looked the part in his half-hour stay at the crease, picking off three fours in his 14 including a sweetly timed cover drive off Harris. But Finn's extra bounce prised him out at short leg, and Sam Robson, the man under the lid, made it two in two overs with a more spectacular reactive effort to see off Javid for 18, two runs after Finn had been convinced he'd got his man to a thin edge.

Eoin Morgan, back in Middlesex's first-class plans after his IPL stint, then dropped Laurie Evans on 0 at leg slip - a costly miss as it turned out, as he and Trott repaired Warwickshire's position in the late evening sunshine, adding 92 unbroken runs for the fourth wicket.

Trott, whose return to Test cricket had proven a bridge too far in the Caribbean, demonstrated once again that, at county level, he has few peers when it comes to drawing the sting of an attack. Aside from his one moment of alarm against Harris, he eased along to 44 not out from 102 balls by the close, as cricket's attention was torn between the drama at the Test and the Chris Gayle-influenced fireworks down in Taunton. It's just how he likes to compile his best innings. For all Middlesex's early ascendancy and Finn's welcome fire, there's a platform from which the visitors can hope to build tomorrow.