County Championship: Middlesex pile on 553-2 against Northants
Vitality County Championship Division One, Wantage Road (day three) |
Northamptonshire 552-6 dec: Gay 261, Sales 113* |
Middlesex 553-2: Holden 211*, Du Plooy 196*, Fernandes 103 |
Middlesex (4 pts) lead Northants (3 pts) by one run |
Teenage opener Nathan Fernandes became Middlesex's youngest debut centurion in first-class cricket since 1862 as the visitors piled on the runs in their County Championship game against Northamptonshire.
Left-hander Fernandes, drafted in to replace the injured Sam Robson at the top of the order, hit 103 before team-mates Max Holden (211 not out) and Leus du Plooy (196 no) both plundered the bowling with big centuries at Wantage Road, steering the visitors to 553-2 at stumps - one run ahead of their hosts.
Fernandes, who turns 20 later this month, was the first Middlesex player to mark his first-class debut with a ton since Ted Clark in 1959 and the youngest since Isaac Walker achieved the feat against Surrey almost 100 years earlier.
Northamptonshire's bowlers toiled gamely in the batting-friendly conditions, but they were put to the sword by Holden - who passed 200 for the first time in his career - and Du Plooy.
It took Fernandes until the sixth over of the morning to increase his overnight score of 65, but the teenager then settled into his stride with a series of classy strokes on either side of the wicket.
He reached his century when he pulled a Rob Keogh long hop to the fence, taking him to exactly 100 from 208 deliveries, but he was on his way soon after when he mistimed an attempt to paddle a slow bouncer from Luke Procter that ballooned up to give wicketkeeper Lewis McManus a routine catch.
The Northamptonshire skipper's strike ended a partnership that had yielded 170, but Holden continued to accumulate runs, displaying greater attacking intent after lunch in tandem with Du Plooy.
Ben Sanderson did get the new ball to whistle just past Holden's outside edge, but the left-hander remained composed and punched the first delivery of his next over to the ropes to move into three figures for the first time in red-ball cricket since 2018.
Du Plooy then completed his first Middlesex century as the pair continued to pile on the runs.
Report supplied by ECB Reporters' Network.
