Malan and Voges master the school-yard

Middlesex 342 for 3 (Malan 147, Voges 127*) v HampshireScorecard

It is, in more ways than one, hard to imagine being sick of the sight of Dawid Malan. Tall, elegant, and left-handed, he has all the tools that come in the purr-inducing starter pack: the late cut, the drives on the up from point to mid-on, the sheer disdain on that tall pull and those dismissive flicks through midwicket. He is the type of leftie for whom the term southpaw actually has meaning; Malan has boxerish poise and balance, and possesses fleet of foot and sleight of hand at the end of powerful limbs.

Hampshire, however, could be forgiven for wanting to see the back of him. They arrived at Merchant Taylor’s School having, this month alone, been on the end of an elegant Championship century and a brutal Twenty20 93, at Uxbridge on Friday night. Then, he had dispatched his first five balls for four, and went on to hit five sixes; words, feisty ones, were exchanged with Tino Best. Of course they were; they always are.

Yet here Hampshire were again. 147 for Malan this time, in a stand of 279 with his captain Adam Voges, who finished the day unbeaten on 127. All five of Malan’s gears were on display, and no part of the sluggish outfield went unused; he used his quick feet to the spinners and stood deep in the crease to the seamers, Best especially.

If Middlesex were not a team who relished one another’s success with such gusto – see the celebration of each of Ollie Rayner’s recent wickets as evidence – you would wonder if Sam Robson and Nick Gubbins, the form men in recent weeks, must have cursed …

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