Return of Dukes proves a hazard for Yorkshire CCC as they slip to yet another Lord's loss

The stadium, of course, was not to blame for the setback - “a bad workman always blames his cricket grounds”, as the saying almost goes. Rather, it was because Middlesex played the better cricket overall in a keenly-fought battle, prevailing by six wickets at 4.40pm.

Yorkshire’s supporters, a good number of whom made the trip south, might wonder how a side containing three current Test batsmen in Shan Masood, Joe Root and Harry Brook, along with a former one in Adam Lyth, can lose to a team whose combined Test experience amounted to 11 caps for Mark Stoneman in 2017/18, and four for Toby Roland-Jones in 2017.

Such a speculation, of course, is a little too simplistic but the fact is that none of Yorkshire’s four gun batsmen made the desired impact. Although Masood top-scored with 33 in the first innings, and Root hit 32 in the second, Yorkshire’s ‘Fab Four’ managed just 95 runs between them in the match in eight innings combined.

That Masood’s 33 was indeed the highest score of that first innings told a story, one of a collective batting failure that cost Yorkshire as they slipped from 64-1 to 98-7 en route to a final total of 159.

Instead, Yorkshire were indebted to three men chiefly for keeping them in the hunt - Ben Coad, George Hill and Jordan Thompson.

Coad was the best bowler on either side, returning 6-79 from 34 overs in the match, and weighing in with scores of 24 and 38 from No 9.

Hill made the highest score of the game with his second innings 75, displaying a level of application that eluded others. Thompson fought back well from a first innings duck to claim five wickets in the Middlesex reply of 246 before chipping in with useful runs in the second innings. Beyond that, there wasn’t much to write home about.

If Yorkshire were to stand any chance on Sunday, they ideally needed to set a target of at least around 200. Instead, after starting the day on 216-7, a lead of 129, their last three wickets added just 28 more to leave Middlesex chasing 158.

Coad fell to the day’s seventh ball - his first of the day - to end a stand of 62 with Hill that had given Yorkshire hope, and after Dan Moriarty was trapped lbw, Hill was last out when he picked out deep square-leg to end a fine innings.

Coad trapped Mark Stoneman lbw with the third ball of the chase, but although Middlesex later lost Nathan Fernandes to a catch at long leg off Thompson, Max Holden to a catch behind off Coad and Leus du Plooy (top-scorer with 42) to a catch at slip off Moriarty, Ryan Higgins (33) and Stephen Eskinazi (18) saw the hosts home.

Ottis Gibson, the Yorkshire head coach, said: “We didn’t bat well on the first day, and they bowled well. We had the reintroduction of the Dukes ball, but all in all over the course of the three days we didn’t bat well enough.

“With the batting line-up we have, you feel those guys know how to play. They don’t need me to tell them how to bat. They just needed to build some partnerships, soak up pressure and put us in a position where we could reverse that pressure. We didn’t do that, and before we know it we are out for 159 and it proved not to be enough.

“When we left home, if you’d said we’d bowl a team out for 240 first innings we’d have been happy with that, but when you’ve only made 159 that 240-something looks a hell of a lot. Just because we didn’t bat well in this game doesn’t mean we are a bad batting team; we just had a bad week.”

Prior to the game, Gibson – whose side return to action against Derbyshire at Headingley on Friday – said that Yorkshire had been looking forward to getting their hands back on the Dukes ball after the first two rounds were played with the less responsive Kookaburra, which brought draws at home to Leicestershire and away to Gloucestershire.

The trouble was, every other county was equally as keen to get the Dukes back too and Middlesex adapted the better overall, although they did have the advantage of winning the toss and bowling first in helpful conditions.

The primary disadvantage of the Dukes, of course, is that it brings “lesser bowlers” into the game, the sort who operate in the medium-pace range and who are rarely seen at the highest level.

It was no coincidence that the leading wicket-taker in the match was Higgins with seven, a man whose deliveries – probing as they are – might struggle to activate a motorway speed camera.

Spinners, too, are disadvantaged by the presence of the Dukes in April, and sadly there were just 10 overs of spin in the game - nine from Moriarty and one from Root, with none whatsoever from Middlesex.

Moriarty was not introduced until the 45th over of the chase, at which point the score was 102-3. He then bowled well for figures of 7-2-12-1.

Perhaps better that the “Professor” had been introduced when, to paraphrase Sherlock Holmes, the game was still afoot as opposed to effectively finished.