Middlesex relegated from Division One as Kent survive

They needed to beat Nottinghamshire after Kent bettered their haul of bonus points and then escaped from their clash with Lancashire with a draw at Canterbury

Middlesex have been relegated back to Division Two after a single season in the top flight.

They needed to beat Nottinghamshire after Kent bettered their haul of bonus points and then escaped from their clash with Lancashire with a draw at Canterbury, but Middlesex were beaten by two wickets.

Despite a fine individual display from Sam Robson, who made a century and took four wickets on the final afternoon at Trent Bridge, they came up short on their return to Division One, punished for a failure to score big runs across the season.

Robson hit three of the county's four centuries, two of which came in Middlesex's final two games - defeats by Warwickshire and Notts. Ryan Higgins, by a stretch their player of the season, had given them hope of a last-gasp heist by making a hundred in the first innings this week, as Middlesex passed 300 in the first innings for the first time all summer.

As they looked to force a result on a used pitch in Nottingham that spun sharply for Robson and overseas recruit Jayant Yadav, they could only blame a struggle to put together scores like that before the middle of September; they picked up just five batting points in 14 games.

^{Sam Robson could have done little more at Trent Bridge (Ben Hoskins/Getty Images)}

Kent, on the other hand, live to fight for another season, thanks in large part to their batting. They struggled for fit seamers for much of the summer but had enough runs to survive, and that came to be the case against Lancashire at Canterbury.

After shaking hands with Lancashire, they would have had their hearts in their mouths when Middlesex reduced Notts to 157 for 7, but Matthew Montgomery and Brett Hutton shared 45 for the eighth wicket, before Jake Ball – in his final game for the club – saw them over the line in dramatic style, sweeping Robson's leg-spin behind square with the scores level.

A tie would have sufficed for Middlesex, who instead return to the second tier.

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