Middlesex's glass looks Fuller after first win

Middlesex 467 for 3 (Voges 160*, Malan 147, Simpson 100*) beat Hampshire 131 (Murtagh 4-33, Roland-Jones 4-49) and 220 (Adams 78, Fuller 5-70) by an innings and 116 runs
Scorecard

The tale of an utterly one-sided contest was summed up neatly by the reactions of the two dressing rooms when Middlesex finally finished Hampshire off.

Middlesex, who took maximum points having waited six painstaking, flat-decked, rain-wrecked draws for a win, sang their long-awaited team song raucously and enjoyed a couple of cleansing, hard-earned beers. Hampshire, seven days after a brilliant win over Nottinghamshire, sat down for a 20-minute, sombre-sounding debrief. They had been trounced - out-batted, out-bowled and out-fought, and only the rain had prevented an innings defeat from arriving sooner. They claimed just one bonus point but subsequently lost it, and another point too, for a shoddy over-rate. They left with one point fewer than they arrived and joined Surrey at the foot of Division One.

It was the pace and carry of James Fuller, who took a five-wicket haul on his Championship debut for Middlesex, that finally did for Hampshire. Fuller was signed from Gloucestershire primarily to help Middlesex remedy their white-ball woes but, having impressed all and sundry with a simple, friendly attitude and the ability to bowl 90mph, he was handed a debut here with Steven Finn - who popped by for that post-match beer - on England duty and James Harris rested.

Having had a bye in week one, this was Middlesex's seventh consecutive game. Tim Murtagh and Toby Roland-Jones bowled brilliantly, picking up six and five wickets respectively, but Fuller's fresher legs, and the extra bounce they helped generate, were invaluable.

It was Roland-Jones, as so often, who picked up the first of the six wickets his team required, as Joe Weatherley - who looked a cricketer at ease on Championship debut - lost his off-bail. More like his director of cricket, Angus Fraser, by the day - in gait and bowling style - Roland-Jones is simply the kind of cricketer who makes his team-mates look better.

In the field, it is hard to recall an error. With the bat, coming in at No. 10 when many sage judges believe he could be as high as seven, he so often adds useful runs. With the ball, he bowls long spells off an even longer run-up and can play the pacy enforcer - as he did for much of the match here - or nag on line and length.

Roland-Jones was left frustrated for the rest of the day, just missing the outside edge or, when he found it, the nick not quite finding a hand. After Weatherley fell, Jimmy Adams dug in, as he had late on Monday and during the 17 overs on Tuesday, to make 78, pulling when Roland-Jones dropped short and clipping neatly off his legs, too.

Adam Wheater drove nicely and the pair shared 53 before falling in consecutive overs. James Franklin made the vital breakthrough, having Adams lbw, then Wheater failed to move his feet and was caught at the wicket to become the first of Fuller's three on the day. A brief shower brought an early lunch shortly after.

Fuller's first four balls upon resumption were as short and sharp as any in the match. With the trap set, Tino Best tried - and failed - to hook all three. The fourth was fuller and Best simply found mid-on, just as he had in the first innings. It is hard to recall notably animated celebrators Middlesex, irked at the beamer Best bowled Adam Voges on day two and angry at the way he had been speaking to their close fielders in the short period before lunch, toasting a dismissal more raucously. After his second pair in consecutive matches, Best was told exactly where to go, and it would have been noted that he did not return for a handshake at day's end.

Before then, Mason Crane had some fun, edging for the rafters, but soon slapped Fuller to point and, after Ryan McLaren - who lacked luck throughout the game - played some fine strokes to delay the inevitable, James Tomlinson edged Ollie Rayner to slip.

There was much to discuss at Hampshire's debrief. Best, in many ways, appears to be becoming an apt embodiment of the team as a whole; brilliant on the good days - such as the spectacular win over Nottinghamshire last week when he was so electric - but miserable on the worst ones (these were very much four of the worst ones), and with an injury never far away. For all those injuries, as their captain Will Smith pointed out afterwards, of this XI only Weatherley and Crane have played fewer than 100 first-class matches, yet performances remain brittle and bipolar.

"It seems to be a pattern for us in this format," Smith said. "When we have our backs to the wall, we do something, like we did last week, but it's about having that mentality from ball one and not getting yourselves into these situations."

A couple more weeks like this, you sense, and last year's great escape will be required all over again.