Vinyl Robson still a hit for Middlesex

Middlesex 139 for 0 (Robson 67*, Gubbins 65*) trail Somerset 376 (Rogers 109, Hildreth 68, Trego 65, Murtagh 5-53) by 237 runs
Scorecard

No Middlesex supporter would have been surprised by Chris Rogers' century on the opening day. In recent years runs for Rogers at Lord's, whether wearing a Middlesex helmet or an Australia one, have been a constant. This time, though, his contribution came against Middlesex rather than for them.

When he partnered Sam Robson at the top of the order for Middlesex, the club had a claim to having the pre-eminent opening pair in the land. Yet even with Rogers departed, Middlesex's top-order strength remains.

Robson is amiable off the field and unobtrusive on it. He has a small selection of shots - the extra cover drive, the cut, and the languid flick to leg of anything straight - which he hones relentlessly, always remembering that it is on stolid defence that all else is built. To see Robson at Lord's is to be transported to an age in which there exists no one like Brendon McCullum, his soon-to-be team-mate. Not that the two are likely to be on the field together for Middlesex: it has been a full five years since Robson played the last of his four T20s innings.

In an age of T20 specialism, Robson is proving that there can be another way. You could call it last-mover advantage: while all else try to move to the T20 beat, Robson is left as the vinyl record in a digital age. Just as vinyls are thriving for their nostalgic quality, so the same is true of Robson's batting. At one point in this innings, as Somerset suffered for drifting on to his pads too often, Robson had 40 from only 43 balls. As if horrified that he threatened to lose the essence of himself, Robson then took another 87 balls over his next 27 runs.

During County Championship matches, Lord's has rapidly taken on the look of being Robson's private fiefdom. So far in 2015, Robson has 518 runs here at a cool average of 259, and needs only another 33 runs on Tuesday to record his fourth consecutive Championship century here.

The only difference between this innings and those three previous ones is that Robson did offer chances: on 53, he was dropped at point by Peter Trego off Tim Gronewald; on 56, he was spilled by Marcus Trescothick at second slip after Craig Overton got a ball to bounce and move late. Those two mishaps apart, Rogers would doubtless have preferred batting with Robson to coming up with a way for his attack to dismiss him.

Not that Robson's opening partner looked any more vulnerable. Nick Gubbins has been the chief beneficiary of Rogers' departure from Middlesex, which opened up a vacancy alongside Robson that he has made his own.

Gubbins regards himself as a three-format cricketer, and has a promising white-ball record to back up his belief. If his first-class statistics do not yet reflect his talents, Gubbins is rapidly changing that: this was his fourth fifty of the Championship summer. Having squandered the chance of a maiden century at The Oval last week, tamely chipping a ball to mid-off after making 91 excellent runs, Gubbins had no intention of repeating that here. After playing out a maiden from the final over of the day, he remained locked in defensive poise for a good ten seconds, envisaging how to reach that first century.

The assurance with which Middlesex's openers batted only served to highlight the skill with which Tim Murtagh bowled in the morning. This was an archetypal Murtagh performance, an exhibition in artful seam bowling with the second new ball. The ball was pitched up, kissed the surface and moved just enough to entice an edge from the batsman - as it did twice in the day's third over, accounting for Rogers and Jim Allenby - or to trap them on the crease, as it did James Hildreth two overs later.

It was a wonderful distillation of the qualities that have brought Murtagh 530 Middlesex wickets at 25.31 apiece. This was his 24th five-for since leaving Surrey to head north of the Thames: given the benign wicket and scant cloud cover, few have been more admirable. Even with an enterprising stand of 113 between Trego and Lewis Gregory, Somerset's 376 still felt shy of par.

Just as Robson gives heart to batsmen who do not embrace the need for speed, so Murtagh does the same: a motorway speed camera would barely be disturbed by a car chugging away at his pace. That should have boded well for Somerset, who have an array of bowlers of similar ilk to Murtagh, but they did not match his skill or impact. As Robson and Gubbins eye up centuries, so Rogers risks being needed to make yet more runs at Lord's to ensure Somerset leave with their sixth consecutive draw in this season's County Championship.