County Championship: Middlesex battle back after Briggs & Rhodes earn lead

Danny Briggs fell just one short of a first County Championship century

Sam Robson passed 50 for the fourth time this season to keep alive relegation-haunted Middlesex's hopes of a draw against Warwickshire on a truncated day three at Lord's.

The former England opener mixed watchful defence with excellent driving to make 51 not out in a stay of a little over two hours as the hosts reached 96-1 in their second innings, still 98 short of making Warwickshire bat again.

Robson shared an opening stand of 78 with Mark Stoneman, the highest between the pair this season and their first of 50 or more since 13 May.

Earlier, Will Rhodes, 102, completed his ninth first-class hundred and his third at Lord's, but Danny Briggs fell one short of a first-ever County Championship century as the Bears totalled 315.

Tim Murtagh, in his final game at Lord's narrowly missed a career-best, finishing with 6-83.

The former Ireland seamer was honoured at lunchtime with a montage of photos, depicting his cricket story at a special presentation made in front of the pavilion steps by former teammates Steven Finn and Ben Scott and the county's former director of cricket Angus Fraser.

Rhodes, 95 not out overnight, soon reached his century, his first of the season, sending a rare loose ball from Murtagh to the square leg boundary for his 13th four of his innings. But he could not push on, departing soon afterwards, slashing Ethan Bamber's first ball of the day into the hands of gully, ending a stand of 143 with Briggs.

If the hosts hoped his departure would allow them to mop up the tail, they were disappointed as Craig Miles came in to lend staunch support to Briggs who on-drove Josh De Caires for four to reach 84.

A few balls later came the day's controversy, an attempted sweep by Briggs came off the inside edge, which flicked off the front of his back pad parallel to the ground and deflected into the gloves of a diving John Simpson. But home celebrations were cut short when umpire Graham Lloyd did not raise his finger.

But, after Murtagh scattered Miles' stumps to claim his sixth wicket, Briggs got twitchy on 99, sent an attempted pull skywards and Simpson ran forward to complete a simple catch.

Chasing a Warwickshire first innings lead of 194, Stoneman and Robson put on 50 before a storm stopped play for two hours with 24 overs lost.

When play resumed, Stoneman cracked three fours from one Oliver Hannon-Dalby over, before falling to an inside edge off Miles. But Robson cut Chris Rushworth to the fence to raise his half-century before a second cloudburst ended play for the day.

Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.