Middlesex put the home visitors into bat when they should have batted, writes Mark Caswell

Another poor batting performance from Middlesex as they went down to an innings defeat to Somerset.

Once again Middlesex put the home visitors into bat when they should have batted, conceding 400 Runs, which then made it virtually impossible to gain a valuable win.

John Simpson unbeaten 57 not out and a spirited 39 from Toby Roland-Jones were the only high points in a total of 175 all out. Following on Mark Stoneman occupied the crease for nearly three hours for his 60, the home teams only half century in the match, with useful contributions from Ryan Higgins 31 and Luke Hollman 28.

In seven first class matches this season Middlesex have only secured one batting point out of a possible 35, and have only gone past 250 once.

With overseas batsman Pieter Malan struggling for form and now injured, and the second xi playing hardly any cricket due to bad weather, Middlesex have a job on their hands to stay up in division one.

There is some respite from the poor performances with the commencement of the t20 campaign against Surrey later next week.

Somerset 404 – Middlesex 175 ao & 216 ao – Somerset won by innings and 13 runs

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