Michael Yardy eclipses Adam Gilchrist as Sussex maul Middlesex

Presumably the thousands who thronged to a three-quarters full Lord's tonight had not come to watch Adam Gilchrist sign autographs. Alas, that was what Middlesex's new star was doing for most of his team's innings. Bowled off his inside edge for only two by Yasir Arafat's first delivery, Gilchrist trooped off glaring suspiciously at his bat and dutifully took up station by an adoring clump of school kids brandishing pens and paper pads. In Gilchrist's absence from the middle the masses were treated instead to the rather more prosaic delights of a Twenty20 masterclass from Michael Yardy, who played with all the self-assurance of a man who knows what it is to win a World Twenty20 title with England. Together with Dwayne Smith, Yardy repaired Sussex's innings from a sorry-looking 33 for four. The two put on 78 together. Seemingly incensed at the idiotic call that led to the fourth of those wickets, the run-out of Ed Joyce, Smith lashed two mighty sixes into the second tier of the Compton Stand in the very next over. The match swung away from Middlesex, despite all Gilchrist's urgent shouts and claps from behind the stumps. Smith fell for 49, but Yardy was unbeaten at the end on 37, each of his four boundaries as ugly and ungainly as the next. Pedro Collins finished with three wickets for 27. He had seen his car towed away in the morning because he had double-parked, so his day only got better. Middlesex looked sharp in the field, even Owais Shah pulled off an outstanding catch at short mid-wicket, leaping up high to his left to gather a chip from Murray Goodwin. But their batting was altogether sloppier. After Gilchrist's early exit, Scott Newman and Neil Dexter rallied the innings with a flurry of fours. But Yardy, whose four overs cost only 14, had both men caught. When Shah pulled a catch to deep backward square Middlesex still needed 60 from 32 balls, and the ground announcer was already assuring everyone that there were no delays on the tube and that the journey home should be easy enough.