Aitchison's maiden ton puts Derbyshire in charge

Ben Aitchison followed his 5-47 in Middlesex's first innings with a century in Derbyshire's reply with the bat [Getty Images] Rothesay County Championship, Division Two, Lord's (day two) Middlesex 177: Aitchison 5-47 & 13-1 Derbyshire 376: Madsen 119, Aitchison 112; Higgins 4-98 Middlesex 3 pts, Derbyshire 6 pts Match scorecard Ben Aitchison became the first player to take five wickets and score a century for Derbyshire in the same match at Lord's as the visitors dominated against hosts Middlesex on day two. Aitchison, who had come in as nightwatchman the previous evening, reached three figures for the first time in his first-class career, making 112 and sharing a stand of 208 for the sixth wicket with skipper Wayne Madsen - the joint third-highest for any wicket by Derbyshire against Middlesex. Veteran Madsen (119) also passed three figures for the first time at Lord's to help Derbyshire to a score of 376 and a first-innings lead of 199.

On a dispiriting day for the hosts' bowlers, Ryan Higgins again emerged with credit taking 4-98. Bad light curtailed Middlesex's second innings after tea but there was still time for Aitchison to snaffle a sixth wicket of the match when Sam Robson edged to slip, before the weather closed in. Aitchison began the day in company with his fellow nightwatchman Nick Potts, the pair extending their partnership to 40 before Higgins, who had switched from the Nursery to Pavilion End, brought one back down the slope to uproot Potts' leg stump.

At that stage Derbyshire, five wickets down, still trailed by 47, but it would be an age before Middlesex tasted any success again. Aitchison, with only one first-class fifty to his name and an average of 14, made a mockery of those stats, crunching an early boundary through the covers. He was given the first of two lives on 41 when Caleb Falconer dropped a sharp chance at backward point and he celebrated with successive fours to reach 50.

Unbeaten on 64 at lunch, a scorching square drive got him under way again after the resumption. There was a second life when he was dropped on 80, Falconer again the one to grass the chance, but he moved smoothly through the nineties before finding the fence square of the wicket to reach his milestone on one of cricket's grandest stages. Madsen was skittish at first, slashing one over the slips for four, but he soon settled and was powerful through the midwicket region as well as sweeping spinner Zafar Gohar into the Mound Stand for six.