County Championship: Pieter Malan's half-century keeps promotion-chasing Middlesex in the hunt at New Road

Pieter Malan played three Tests for South Africa in 2020

Pieter Malan struck a timely unbeaten half century to help promotion-chasing Middlesex seize the initiative on a truncated second day of the County Championship encounter with Worcestershire at New Road.

Malan had contributed scores of 0, 8 and 2 during the wins earlier this month over Glamorgan and Leicestershire which had reignited Middlesex's push for a top-two spot.

But the former Warwickshire player demonstrated the form which had brought him one hundred and four fifties in the One-Day Cup.

He steered his side to 146-2 from 44 overs after they had bowled Worcestershire out for 225.

Malan brought up his half century in the grand manner with a six off Ed Barnard and by the close had moved onto 68 from 135 balls.

Middlesex still need a maximum of 16 points to ensure promotion after their rivals Glamorgan claimed maximum batting points against Sussex at Hove.

Worcestershire resumed on 167-8 and some clean hitting from Josh Tongue was largely responsible for them reaching 225 all out in 82.5 overs.

The pace bowler ended unbeaten on 39 after hitting a career best 45 not out in the previous game against Nottinghamshire.

Dillon Pennington helped him add 45 for the ninth wicket before he was lbw to Ryan Higgins.

Toby Roland-Jones wrapped up the innings with his fourth wicket when having Ben Gibbon caught behind.

He finished with 4-50 to take his wicket tally for the season to 67.

When Middlesex batted Pennington gave Worcestershire the perfect start when Sam Robson played on without a run on the board.

It should have become 10-2 after Mark Stoneman edged a delivery from Gibbon but the chance was put down by Jack Haynes at second slip.

Stoneman went onto complete 1,000 first class runs in a campaign for the sixth time when he reached 11.

Worcestershire struggled to bowl the right line and Stoneman and Pieter Malan brought up the 50 in only 10.4 overs.

But runs were harder to come by after lunch and Tongue, on his way back to full match fitness after 14 months out of action with a shoulder problem, made the second breakthrough.

Stoneman on 36 tried to get his hands out of the way of a delivery of extra bounce and gloved through to wicketkeeper Gareth Roderick.

Worcestershire pace bowler Josh Tongue:

"I've always enjoyed batting so to get out my pads on and spend some time out there in the middle is quite nice.

"The old ball was still doing a tiny bit and we tried to get as many runs as we could before the new ball. That was the best choice for us as tail-enders.

"Dillon Pennington has had an unbelievable season so I was not surprised he got a wicket so early. To take a wicket before lunch was crucial. But I don't think we stacked enough balls in the right areas."

South Africa's Pieter Malan:

"It's quite a difficult wicket to get in on. It's just a hard graft and you've just got to take what they give you. A couple of good partnerships and hopefully we can continue doing that.

"They bowled really well. They've got a couple of really good young bowlers, and it was a good battle out there. They seemed to have a decent time this morning, batting against our bowlers, so I was thinking that maybe it would play a bit easier.

"What this team has done really well this season is take things session by session, not looking too far ahead, not focusing on other results and controlling what we can do."

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.