David Payne masterclass helps Gloucestershire dodge rain to beat Middlesex

SAM DALLING AT LORD'S: The left-arm quick finishes with best-ever match figures of 11 for 87 as Gloucestershire secure their fourth group win of the campaign

Lord's (third day of four): Middlesex 210 & 152, Gloucestershire 273 & 93-3  - Gloucestershire won by seven wickets

Scorecard

It has been quite a fortnight for Gloucestershire seamer David Payne, who has enjoyed a memorable pair of firsts. Having become a father at the end of April, his partner giving birth to a baby girl, at Lord’s of all places, he secured a maiden 10-wicket haul. Plenty to toast in the Payne household then.  

A club man like Payne though will be more concerned with the bigger picture, and for the Glosters it is far brighter than the skies that loomed ominously over St John’s Wood for much of this dreary Saturday (May 8). For this was Chris Dent’s side’s fourth County Championship victory of the summer and ensured they retain their somewhat surprising place at the top of Group Two at the halfway stage. Surprising that is to everyone but perhaps themselves. 

It was the second time in 48-hours that Middlesex felt the pain at the hands of Payne, his 5 for 31 on Thursday topped up with 6 for 56 – five of which came this afternoon - as the hosts were skittled out for 152. Requiring 90 for victory, the visitors knocked them off comfortably enough despite losing a trio of wickets. It would not have caused much of a stir in the away dressing room: all of their wins have come in chases.

Payne has been around for more than a decade now but is never mentioned in dispatches despite offering that left-arm point of difference. The problem is his entire career has been played out in the relative obscurity of the bottom tier and so he remains an unknown quantity. Whether he ever gets to play Division One cricket remains to be seen – his side were promoted in 2019 before the pandemic enforced re-shuffle – but in this re-jigged format, he now has 19 wickets at 17.42 from just three matches.  

Payne has been a fine servant to the Bristol club since his graduation from the Academy back in 2009 and is now just four short of 300 first-class wickets in their colours. He is also a formidable white-ball force. His success in the shorter format, where he has further 224 wickets, means later this year he will play professionally for a club other than Gloucestershire for the first time: he has been drafted by the Welsh Fire.

Though international honours are beyond him could his crowning moment be a Championship title tilt? It is impossible to rule Gloucestershire out right now, with any impact of Richard Dawson’s departure to work with England surely now alleviated. Successor Ian Harvey, who was already part of the fabric of the club, could not have wished for a better start. A tricky transition it has not been.

For Middlesex and their own Australian coach, the situation is as bleak. Stuart Law and Harvey shared a drink last night, and one can only imagine it was the Gloucestershire man consoling his Middlesex counterpart. Only a couple of late blows from Thilan Walallawita ensured the Seaxes avoided the ignominy of being dismissed for below 150 for the fourth time this season and barring Robbie White, their batting has been both brittle and inconsistent.

Sam Robson’s hundred on the opening morning of the summer remains their only triple figure score. If ever there was a false dawn that was it. Exactly a month on from the close of play that day, their red-ball hopes have drained away faster than the moisture on the Lord’s outfield. Their first-class season is effectively over with nine games remaining. 

With the country waking to pouring rain, and with the only play possible elsewhere a handful of overs late on down at the Ageas Bowl, it is a minor miracle the bell rang shortly after 1pm, albeit with the floodlights in use from the outset.  

Law has on a few occasions already this year had stern words for his charges, and doubtless, he would have again after they had closed 26 for 3. Max Holden, Robson and Peter Handscomb, who may be wishing he remained an imaginary figure in the minds of Middlesex fans, had all fallen.  

The counterpunch was led by Nick Gubbins. He stands tall at the crease rocking from front to back foot as the bowler approaches, and was comfortable using his feet to take lbw out of the equation and to negate any swing. At one point he almost met Matt Taylor halfway down.  

There have been plenty of glimmers of Gubbins’ obvious talent this season, and his 75 in last week’s defeat at Somerset was the game’s standout innings. His plan today was clear: play positively from the outset and he took three off Payne’s second over of the day. Before then, the bowler had conceded just four runs from seven overs. A couple of dabbles down to third man before a booming drive that whistled past mid-off’s left hand.  

That early positivity was checked by the loss of night-watchman Ethan Bamber for a duck and Robbie White, who was left stranded on 76 in the first innings, for just a single. White has been a virtually immovable object for the last few weeks, but Payne got one to nip back through his defences courtesy of an inside edge. Gubbins turned away in dismay at the non-striker’s end.  

Taylor was the next to have his figures ruined by Gubbins, his four overs for one run becoming five overs for 13. A ferocious whip through mid-wicket was airborne but struck so sweetly it was at the boundary in a nano-second, before a shuffle toward the bowler and push into the offside raced away to the short Grandstand side boundary. A cover drive brought another four. Gubbins had raced onto 44 and not long after he reached a composed half-century with another a tuck off the hips from Ryan Higgins.  

^{Nick Gubbins produced some much-needed stubborness}

Gubbins was ably supported by John Simpson, a man also in desperate need of runs. He had just 109 in eight innings before this but if he was feeling the pressure it didn’t tell. Typically busy at the crease, he nudged and nurdled both sides of the square, and played the shot of the day: a crunching drive through cover off Daniel Worrall that whistled across the outfield. That brought up the fifty partnership – at exactly a run a ball and in only 40 minutes.  

There was an odd feeling: Middlesex’s lead was slender but Gloucestershire were suddenly in a tussle, and Dent reacted by deploying boundary riders.

But it was the return of Payne that proved crucial, his eighth wicket of the match coming when the ball cannoned into Gubbins’ pad. The appeals were vociferous after a pause up went the finger: there was not much to like about the decision, replays suggesting the ball struck Gubbins, who was offering a shot, outside of the line of offs-stump.   

Simpson continued to attack, going past his previous season’s best by pushing Ryan Higgins through extra cover to pick up a boundary. He had reached 40 when he was early through a drive off Payne and merely chipped a simple return catch back to the bowler.  

When James Harris was trapped lbw two balls later without scoring, Middlesex were effectively 71 for 8 and Payne had his five. Martin Andersson played a couple of expansive drives before slashing to slip and Walawallita pulled a towering six into the Grandstand to take Middlesex past 150.

Ahead of the Gloucestershire innings, Gubbins was merrily juggling three balls outside the pavilion, but it was more of a conjure that his side needed. To add salt into Middlesex’s wounds it was their former player Tom Lace, who made a fluent unbeaten 31, who consigned them to defeat. 

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