Fraser leads a rout

CRICKET Middlesex 587 Nottinghamshire 285 & 116 Middx won by inns & 186 runs

MIDDLESEX are clearly shaping up as a sideto be reckoned with this season. In crushing Nottinghamshire by an innings and 186 runs at Lord's yesterday, they have leapfrogged their way to second place in the Championship table. This was their fourth successive Championship victory by an innings and their fifth of the season by that margin. The timing of their gathering momentum may prove unstoppable.

Once again it was a powerful performance by Middlesex, whose combination of spin and seam has clearly given them the right kind of options to bowl sides out in quick succession. Yesterday it was the seam department, spearheaded by Angus Fraser with four for 41 and Dion Nash with two for 20, that did most of the damage, though Nottinghamshire, without another weighty contribution from Chris Cairns, appeared as willing accessories to the carnage.

It was only Cairns' career-best 115 that gave the visitors' first innings a smattering of respectability, a collective indictment thrown into even sharper relief when you realised that it was first innings extras that contributed the next highest score. Australians have long claimed that county cricket is a breeding ground for softies and Nottinghamshire's spineless second-innings collapse to 116, their lowest total of the summer, did little to contradict the jelly-baby image.

The day began perfectly for Middlesex, as things usually do for teams in step with the rhythm of winning. Cairns, who had twice taken fours off Phil Tufnell, obligingly checked a drive to long-off, where John Emburey secured the catch. Andy Pick followed soon after, bowled trying to hoick Tufnell into the Mound Stand to give the impetuous spinner a deserved five-wicket haul, his first of the season in the Championship.

Tufnell, who will probably facedisciplinary action following an obscene gesture to a spectator on Friday, looks to be bowling with more purpose than a month ago, and although there was a rabble present ready to jeer and goad him when his appeals were turned down, he was not tempted to respond, wisely keeping his fingers wrapped around the ball lest the slightest twitch should be misinterpreted.

It was Tufnell's spinning partner, Emburey, who began the visitors' second collapse of the match by bowling Tim Robinson, the batsman's soft defensive prod allowing the ball to roll back on to the stumps in a slow- motion replay of his dismissal in the first innings.

It was the pre-lunch breach Middlesex had been hoping for, and the left- handed Paul Pollard followed in the next over, leg before to Nash. Two balls later Nash had Paul Johnson similarly adjudged after clearly ruffling the batsman's normally confident demeanour with a searing first-ball bouncer.

After lunch, Fraser, who had bowled a lacklustre spell with the new ball, changed ends. Finding a better rhythm from the Pavilion End, Fraser got one to hold up the slope, which left Graeme Archer's forward grope looking defensively inadequate once John Carr had pouched the edge at second slip.

These days Fraser's limbs tire easily, but wickets, especially wickets as important as these, have enervating properties, and by the time he had removed Chris Cairns, Wayne Noon and Usman Afzaal in swift succession, he had worked up a fair head of steam, eventually settling for four wickets and a breather rather than five wickets and a jug at nearby Crockers.

With the damage done, Tufnell came back to remove Colin Banton, leg before, failing to offer a stroke. After batting for 100 minutes for 12, Banton's bizarre misjudgement summed up a miserable day for the visitors as Middlesex finished yet another County Championship match well inside the distance.