Higgins four-for helps dominant Middlesex enforce follow-on
Saif Zaib passes 1000 runs for season but Northants wobble again after conceding 364 deficit
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24-Jul-2025
Ryan Higgins claimed a four-wicket haul • Getty Images
Northamptonshire 261 (Zaib 82, Higgins 4-51) and 64 for 3 trail Middlesex 625 for 8 dec by 300 runs
Ryan Higgins moved to the top of Middlesex's wicket-taking chart for the season as his side closed in on a Rothesay County Championship victory over Northamptonshire at Merchant Taylors' School.
Higgins finished with 4 for 51, with Noah Cornwell taking 3 for 48 as the visitors were made to follow on 364 behind - and the medium-pacer then grabbed two quick top-order wickets second time around to further improve his season's tally to 32.
Northamptonshire stumbled to 64 for 3 at stumps and their plight would have been deeper but for rain stoppages and Saif Zaib's first-innings 82, which made him the county's first player to register 1000 first-class runs in a season since Ben Duckett in 2016.
Zaib was almost the fastest to that landmark across the Championship circuit, but the 27-year-old narrowly missed out to Surrey's Dom Sibley, who got there just 15 minutes earlier at Scarborough.
Middlesex rotated their seam quartet when the visitors resumed on 126 for 4, but their spin options were limited after Zafar Gohar, tumbling to deal with George Bartlett's cover drive, landed awkwardly on his shoulder and had to leave the field.
Bartlett, having steered Tom Helm neatly through gully for four, repeated the stroke later in the over and picked out the fielder this time, but Zaib continued to progress steadily as he built a partnership with Rob Keogh.
Keogh, who had injured a finger while fielding on day one, did well to withstand a couple of Helm deliveries that rose sharply down the slope and helped Zaib to add 55 before Cornwell had him caught down the leg side.
The left-hander went on to pass 50 for the ninth time in this season's Championship, ushering Northamptonshire's total beyond 200 before rain arrived to send the players off for an early lunch.
Dom Leech provided spirited support, finding the boundary four times in his knock of 22 while Zaib capitalised on successive short balls from Leus du Plooy, pulling the slow left-armer for six and four. Higgins broke the seventh-wicket stand of 64 with two dismissals in as many deliveries, with Leech caught top-edging a hook before Ben Sanderson was lbw without scoring to leave the visitors eight down.
A more persistent spell of rain held up play for the next hour and a half - but it took just three balls for Cornwell to wrap up Northamptonshire's first innings, knocking out Zaib's off stump with one that seamed back before cleaning up Yuzvendra Chahal with a yorker.
After another weather-induced delay, Higgins reclaimed centre stage, winning what looked like a borderline lbw decision against Ricardo Vasconcelos and castling Aadi Sharma next ball to leave the visitors reeling at 10 for 2. James Sales began redressing the balance with a series of positive shots in his knock of 26, but he attempted one too many and lost his middle stump to Toby Roland-Jones.
Stand-in skipper Lewis McManus remained defiant, punching Helm off the back foot to the fence to reach 21 not out before the light deteriorated sufficiently for the umpires to bring play to a close.