County Championship: Ryan Higgins leads Middlesex to safety in run feast against Glamorgan

Ryan Higgins picked up where he left off last season as he led the way for Middlesex

Ryan Higgins and Mark Stoneman led Middlesex to safety as they ended day three of their County Championship opener against Glamorgan just 11 runs short of avoiding the follow-on.

Middlesex closed on 460-5 in reply to Glamorgan's mammoth 620-3 declared at Lord's.

Higgins' unbeaten 127 was the high point of the day after Stoneman fell for 97.

Just eight wickets have fallen over three days in a batters' paradise.

Glamorgan claimed five bonus points to Middlesex's three, reflecting their greater urgency with the bat.

But the relatively favourable weather, with no play lost, has not produced any prospect of a positive result with the draw seeming inevitable.

After Sam Northeast's epic ground-record innings the previous day, Stoneman and Max Holden looked well set in a stand of 120 with virtually nothing passing the bat.

But Stoneman, looking to bring up three figures, smashed spinner Kiran Carlson to cover where Dan Douthwaite clung on to a fierce catch.

Glamorgan's constant field adjustments then paid off when Holden, on 53, glanced Douthwaite to a tumbling Colin Ingram at leg slip.

Captain Leus du Plooy, newly signed from Derbyshire, and Higgins steadied the ship with little difficulty but the second new ball saw debutant Mir Hamza trap Du Plooy lbw for 37 early in the afternoon.

Middlesex made little effort to go for a third batting point as Jack Davies started slowly and the home side were 341-4 at the 110-over mark.

Higgins' assured stroke-play saw him reach three figures off 151 balls with 13 boundaries, following up a successful 2023 season when he was his county's leading light.

He added 153 with Davies before the wicket-keeper was leg-before for 60, playing across the line to Carlson.

But Higgins and Josh de Caires saw the home side safely to the close.

Glamorgan used eight bowlers, including the rarely-used leg-spin of Ingram, on a placid pitch with no movement from the Kookaburra ball.

Middlesex all-rounder Ryan Higgins said:

"My first hundred at Lord's is pretty special, a nice thing to tick off and hopefully there'll be a few more in future.

"Knowing the nature of the pitch, we knew if we batted well and patiently, the scoreboard would take care of itself.

"It was a massive [Glamorgan] score and we didn't bowl well at times, but Sam [Northeast] played an outrageous innings.

"If you play patiently and straight, it's as good a wicket as I've seen at Lord's so you didn't need to feel scoreboard pressure."

Glamorgan all-rounder Dan Douthwaite told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was very tough, credit to the Middlesex batters because even though it's a lifeless deck, they applied themselves nicely just like we did.

"I think we tried absolutely everything in the bowling manual, slower balls, slow ball bumpers, but it didn't really pay off despite a great effort with the Kookaburra [ball].

"It's not the pitch any of us were expecting when we turned up, we were hoping it would speed up, or go up and down, but it's stayed true and looks even nicer to bat on.

"It feels like a fresh start [personally] when you get a new coach (Grant Bradburn) and it's a good feeling to be back around the first team in red-ball cricket. Hopefully at this stage of my career I can push my name forward."