County Championship: Northants need another 89 runs to beat Middlesex

Chris Tremain took six wickets in the match for Northants

Northamptonshire closed in on their first County Championship win over Middlesex since 2010 after the visitors suffered a fourth batting collapse of the season on day three at Wantage Road.

The visitors' top order had misfired in their first three innings since returning to Division One and did so again as they plummeted from 37 without loss to 107-7, Chris Tremain the chief destroyer with 3-41.

A 52-run stand between Toby Roland-Jones and Luke Hollman at least ensured there would be a fourth day but needing only 119 to win, the hosts closed on 30-1, with Ricardo Vasconcelos the man to fall, and just 89 runs short of their target.

Middlesex's latest batting woes came after Northamptonshire were bowled out for 198 on the stroke of lunch, a first innings lead of 49. Rob Keogh was left unbeaten on 75, with Roland-Jones returning 4-53 and Ethan Bamber 3-42.

Middlesex would have begun their second innings with some trepidation and Sam Robson, a man with just six runs to his name so far this season, almost fell for a duck, only for Josh Cobb to shell a comfortable catch at fourth slip.

However, although he and fellow England opener Mark Stoneman battled to 37, the sky then fell in once more.

Robson was castled by Ben Sanderson and, just two balls later, Pieter Malan shouldered arms only to see the ball send his off stump cartwheeling out of the ground.

Stoneman perished soon afterwards, caught on the crease and pinned lbw as he had been in last week's loss to Essex.

Stephen Eskinazi and Max Holden briefly stemmed the flow of wickets, but just five minutes before tea the latter inexplicably hooked a short ball from Gareth Berg, skying a catch to the grateful Luke Procter at mid-on.

Things went from bad to worse two balls after the tea interval as Tremain uprooted Eskinazi's middle-stump, and in his next over the Australian quick found the edge of Ryan Higgins' bat, presenting Lewis McManus with a simple catch.

Not even wicketkeeper John Simpson, often the man for a crisis, could stop the rot, and when he drove another one from Tremain straight to cover, defeat in three days looked likely.

Roland-Jones and Hollman (30) eased those fears with an enterprising half-century stand, the former striking the ball powerfully to record a towering six and five fours in a swashbuckling 37.

However, the spin of Rob Keogh broke the burgeoning stand, luring Roland-Jones out of his crease to be stumped by McManus, after which the end came swiftly with Middlesex skittled for 167.

Keogh had stood head and shoulders above the rest in the morning session to steer Northamptonshire to a priceless first-innings lead.

Keogh shrugged off the loss of skipper Procter in the first over of the day, caught at slip off Bamber to play the only innings of real quality.

As wickets tumbled around him, Keogh cut and drove with real authority to move to a half-century from 103 balls with seven fours.

Even so, with Bamber and Roland-Jones chipping away, the hosts were only 25 ahead when their ninth wicket fell.

It was the signal for Keogh to go on the attack, twice launching Ryan Higgins over the ropes for six, both blows ending up on the concourse.

His belligerence meant by the time Jack White's stumps were scattered by Roland-Jones, Northamptonshire's lead had stretched into the realms of more than useful.

Match report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.