Gubbins keeps Middlesex dream alive

It was more constrictor than cobra, more glacier than waterfall but, if Middlesex do go on to win the County Championship title this season, they may look back on Nick Gubbins' innings here as a key contribution.

With Yorkshire passing 400 at Leeds and Middlesex reeling at 81 for 5, this could have been the day their title challenge fell away. But through Gubbins' skill and determination, they will resume on day three with the match in the balance and their first Championship title since 1993 still attainable.

Gubbins has already contributed heavily this season. With 1122 Championship runs at an average of almost 60, he is not only his club's highest run-scorer, but the fourth highest in the top division. He has played three fewer innings than all above him.

But many of those runs have been scored on the slow and flat - the painfully slow and flat - surface at Lord's. And while Angus Fraser, Middlesex's director of cricket, reasons that such surfaces may benefit his team in the long-term ("they give batsmen confidence and teach bowlers the value of control," he suggests), they can also inflate the records of some of those playing there.

Here, though, in conditions where the ball moved all day for the seamers and on a slow, used surface that provided assistance to two spinners with international wickets to their name, he was forced to prove his quality in far less benign circumstances. And, after an opening over hat-trick on the first evening, he did it under the pressure of knowing his team needed him more than ever.

It was, as he admitted himself, "a bit of a grind" at times. He went, at one stage, 38 overs without a boundary and 80 deliveries over the accumulation of five runs. His share of the stand of 42 with Stevie Eskinazi was just five and his half-century took 187 balls.

But it was, in its way, compelling viewing. Forced to play straight and wait for the poor ball - and Nottinghamshire made him wait a long time - he refused to be drawn into playing away from his body and refused to let his impatience or frustration change his approach. For a 22-year-old, it was an impressively disciplined, selfless effort. Without it, Middlesex would have been in deep trouble.

Gubbins is a batsman with far more to him than grim defence and crease occupation. He made his breakthrough as a List A batsman (he averaged 56.50 in that format in 2015) and has scored his Championship runs at a rate of 53.27 this season. He has a a trademark force off the hips - a stroke he can play on the ground or in the air off a good length ball on off stump - that can make a bowler wonder why he bothers.

But reasoning that he is in this game for the long-haul, he has decided that such strokes are, for now, low-percentage. He has decided, like many top-order players before him, to play within himself ("that shot forces my head too far over to the off side," he explains) and concentrate on a tight defence before worrying himself about domination. In conditions like this such a method will serve him - and, one day perhaps, England - well.

There were still some elegant shots. When Brett Hutton dropped short he was cut, when Jake Ball - a little off colour, despite the five-wicket haul - he was driven. Imran Tahir's odd loose balls were similarly punished. As Gubbins put it: "I never really felt I had dropped anchor, but they bowled very well, had in out fields and we had to battle hard to reach parity."

It was no surprise to hear that he has been spending time with Nick Compton. There were times here when this was much like watching Compton of 2012 vintage: a watertight defence and love for batting slowly breaking down the bowlers and feeding off their mistakes. It's old school but it works.

Such feats of concentration and mental and physical endurance can wear any player. It may be that both Compton and Jonathan Trott one day look back on their careers and reflect that they simply exhausted themselves. But, for now at least, Gubbins has the energy and the talent to relish the battle. If he can sustain it, he will be prove of great service to country as well as club.

Notts looked far better than a bottom of the table team. Hutton produced a beauty to account for John Simpson - the ball swung in, pitched and moved just enough to beat what appeared to be a perfectly respectable forward defensive stroke and hit the top of off stump - while Harry Gurney bowled impressively dry and delivered four maidens in succession at one stage.

If Dawid Malan felt himself unfortunate to be given out leg before - he held his head in his hands with disappointment - James Franklin felt to a loose upper cut to deep backward point and Eskinazi was well beaten by Imran. Gubbins' fine innings was eventually ended by Hutton's first over with the second new ball, when he was forced to play another beauty that swung in, held in the pitch and took the edge.

Notts are not out of this game. With a potent leg-spinner to call upon, Middlesex face a tough challenge in the fourth innings on a used pitch. If Notts can just bat a little better in their second innings - and they started brightly - the great escape remains a distant possibility.

Meanwhile Mick Newell, who is soon to be director of cricket at Nottinghamshire, hinted that a place could be found for James Taylor on the club's coaching staff. Taylor, who was forced to retire with immediate effect in April after being diagnosed with a serious heart condition, has made no secret of his desire to try his hand at coaching.

Notts have missed not just his runs, but his experience and spirit this season. While a role as a full time coach seems unlikely, it seems a part-time position mentoring young batsmen - especially in white ball cricket - could be created.

"He's interested and there's scope for him to work with us," Newell said. "I think he can work with young batters like Tom Moores. We lost a lot of mental toughness when he went. It was a big loss."