County Championship: Yorkshire hang on as Middlesex press for victory

Joe Root has one half-century in four innings for Yorkshire so far this season

Ryan Higgins struck twice in successive balls, including the scalp of Harry Brook for a golden duck, as Middlesex maintained the upper hand in their County Championship game against Yorkshire.

Medium-pacer Higgins, who picked up four wickets in the first innings, dismissed Finlay Bean and Brook either side of tea at Lord's and Toby Roland-Jones ousted Joe Root as Yorkshire slumped to 83-5 second time around.

But George Hill led a White Rose fightback in the evening session with a patient unbeaten 52 to lift them to 216-7 at stumps, giving them a lead of 129.

Earlier, Jordan Thompson's five-wicket haul and an impressive spell by Ben Coad, who took 4-59, had bowled Yorkshire back into the game as Middlesex posted 246 which featured half-centuries from Leus du Plooy and Josh de Caires.

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Du Plooy reached his half-century from 43 balls but fell victim to Coad, who produced a superb delivery that jagged back to take out his off stump before also pinning Jack Davies leg before moving across.

That left Middlesex 136-7 and a first-innings lead which had looked a formality was very much in jeopardy.

However, Roland-Jones led the Middlesex counter-attack by dispatching Mickey Edwards for a string of boundaries, with De Caires following his captain's lead as the pair shared a stand of 56.

Roland-Jones' knock of 30 was ended when he offered a return catch to Thompson while De Caires posted the second red-ball half-century of his career before being removed by Coad.

That left Yorkshire trailing by 93 and they had reduced that by just 13 when Roland-Jones removed Adam Lyth and Shan Masood to bring Root to the middle with the visitors under pressure.

Root and Bean added 46 only for Higgins to strike with successive deliveries spanning different sessions to trap Bean and Brook lbw.

Yorkshire were still in the red when Root departed for 32, miscuing a hook off Roland-Jones, but Hill, Thompson (26) and Coad (38 not out) ensured Yorkshire will have something substantial to defend in the fourth innings.

Report supplied by the ECB Reporters' Network.