Lancashire dominated the cricket that was played on another rain-affected day of their County Championship Division Two match with Middlesex. Heavy rain overnight and in the morning had delayed the third day's play at Emirates Old Trafford until 15:00 BST. Tom Aspinwall claimed the final two wickets as Middlesex went from their overnight 189-8 to 211 all out to finish with 4-62.
An explosive 17-wicket second day at The Oval ended, remarkably, with Liam Patterson-White and Lyndon James producing the highest partnership of an absorbing low-scoring match to tilt the potential championship title decider Nottinghamshire's way. At 219-8 in their second innings, Notts are 277 runs ahead of Surrey and after Patterson-White fell for 58, the best individual score of the match so far, they saw Brett Hutton (23 not out) and Josh Tongue, unbeaten on 14, add more vital runs before the close.
As we reach the end of the season, the rigours of the season inevitably take their toll on the fast-bowling unit, so to be able to bring someone in of Olly's proven international quality to freshen things up ahead of the County Championship run-in is a huge bonus.
