Middlesex v Somerset: Dean Elgar punishes Middlesex attack

Dean Elgar helped rescue Somerset with his highest score of the season

Centuries from Dean Elgar and Lewis Gregory helped Somerset into a strong position against Middlesex at Lord's.

South Africa opener Elgar (158) made his second ton of the season, while Gregory made 137, his maiden first-class century as the pair added 249 for the sixth wicket.

Josh Davey made 47 and Jamie Overton a swift 37 as Somerset declared on 443-9.

Middlesex openers Nick Gubbins and Nick Compton survived a few scares to reach the close on 42-0.

Gregory and Elgar had come together with Somerset struggling on 80-5, but they turned the game on its head, both batting deep into the afternoon session as Middlesex's bowlers toiled under blue skies.

Elgar, who has reached 50 in eight of his past 10 innings for Division One's bottom side, was finally removed by James Franklin (2-34) as the pair fell just 16 runs short of the county's record sixth-wicket stand, set in 1961 by Bill Alley and Ken Palmer.

Gregory, who was dropped by Ollie Rayner on 31, easily surpassed his previous best first-class knock of 73, before Toby Roland-Jones had him caught at long leg by Tom Helm shortly before tea.

Davey beat the bat of Gubbins and Compton as Middlesex began their reply, but the openers saw the hosts through to the close with all wickets intact.

After also bagging his first-ever five-wicket return at Lord's in 2013, to also post his maiden Championship century there led to Gregory labelling the Home of Cricket as his lucky ground.

Lewis Gregory told BBC Radio Somerset:

"It's clearly a lucky ground for me. It's been a special day. It felt really good to do it here. I've always known the ability was there and I was capable of this.

"But I really have to give a lot of credit to Dean. He kept me calm and didn't let me get carried away with the situation.

"We weren't in a great place when I went out to bat and, at first, Dean and I just had to scrap things out.

"We just kept trucking along, took each 30 minutes as it came and went and tried to stay out there as long as we could."

Middlesex's Tom Helm told BBC Radio London:

"If you got the ball in the right areas there was a little something.

"But fair play to Lewis and Dean, they both played really well.

"That's the first time I've gone for 100 runs, which wasn't great, but overall I was fairly happy.

"It's looking like a draw from here but that's by no means definite."