Shah shows off new maturity

Durham 645-6 Middlesex 465 and 194-5 Match drawn

There is a steely look to Middlesex these days. If anyone doubts this then they needed only to have witnessed the tail-end of their first innings when Phil Tufnell and Aaron Laraman took their last-wicket stand a further 22 runs before it ended. Then they should have watched the hard-headed approach when Middlesex followed-on.

Although they have slipped into second place in the Second Division behind a resurgent Derbyshire, there was certainly no shame in the way Middlesex fought back to force this draw against an ebullient Durham. One of the key figures throughout the toil was Owais Shah, for so long regarded as a prodigy and so rarely given credit for having outgrown that onerous label. In this match he batted for almost nine hours and, while he must have been tempted to unleash his armoury, he remained faithful to the team's cause second time around, opting for grit rather than glitter.

For much of the time, however, there was entertainment aplenty from Ed Joyce, who has wrists as strong and as flexible as carbon fibre coupled with an impeccable sense of timing. These qualities allowed him to send the ball skimming to the off-side boundary or scudding over the turf through midwicket with no obvious indication of effort.

This punishing innings was in contrast to Shah, who had been in for 14 overs, with just a single to his name, by the time the left-handed Joyce joined him. It looked as if Shah might be staging a go-slow in support of Scottish and Irish plumbers who had been told they had to work over the holiday's. Since his job was to prevent any leakage of wickets it would have been an acceptable reason. But whatever, he demonstrated a degree of maturity in grinding his way to 37 in 172 minutes. His end was all the more surprising because of it. They had taken tea, with Middlesex looking far more sure of themselves, when Shah eschewed a stroke at a delivery from Marc Symington; the ball rapped him on a pad and saw him depart lbw.

Joyce immediately applied the brakes to his innings until he was fed an irresistible delivery which he clipped venomously to midwicket where Graeme Bridge plucked a great catch off his toes. At that point Middlesex were still in arrears, by some 35 runs and it called for further stern discipline from Abdul Razzaq and Paul Weekes to steer the innings carefully to the close.