Dawid Malan scored a career-best 143 to move Middlesex into the driving seat against Derbyshire at Lord's. Photograph: Paul Gilham/Getty ImagesFive days ago, Lord's was bouncing to the egalitarian beat of People's Monday. On Saturday, it buzzed, albeit at a much lower pitch, to another unaccustomed innovation: Ladies' Day.
It was the fourth incarnation of this Middlesex venture linked to Breakthrough Breast Cancer, an alliance that has imbued the county's sober navy livery with a splash of pink and turned their one-day shirts into a Battenberg cake.
So rather than anoraks and scorebooks it was fascinators and flowery dresses. Champagne flowed – free for women, along with admission to the ground – in the Harris Garden, where there were as many quaffing as there were watching the cricket in the stands.
Regular Middlesex supporters, who would normally be in shorts and ill-fitting replica shirts, were suited, booted and with female accompaniment. Think the Major in Fawlty Towers: "I took her to see India." "India?" "At The Oval."
The Derbyshire 12th man Mark Footitt, walking round the boundary, was persuaded to exchange his county cap for a fascinator belonging to a young woman. This is probably not how those Middlesex grandees Gubby Allen and Pelham Warner would have defined progress.
Steven Finn, the Middlesex bowler who has spent much of the past few days driving to and from the Test at Nottingham, tweeted "it could get messy", in reference to the free champagne.
It seemed appropriate that the first two wickets were taken by a bowler with a girl's name. Jonathan Clare, a 6ft 4in all-rounder from Burnley, whose progress has been hindered by injury, broke Middlesex's century opening stand with the 10th ball of the day. He then dismissed Chris Rogers, whose innings of 11 was strangely fraught against the side he used to captain.
By mid-afternoon, Middlesex had crept into the lead, but, with five wickets down, they seemed to have missed an opportunity. The pitch, which was used for the one-day game between the sides on Thursday, was wearing fast and the prospect of a sizeable fourth-innings chase is not one that Middlesex – second in Division Two – would wish to contemplate.
But a career-best 143 from Dawid Malan converted Middlesex's slender lead into a meaningful advantage. By the time he was ninth out, slashing Clare to Wayne Madsen at gully four overs before stumps, Middlesex were 135 in front.
Malan, 23, Roehampton-born but raised in South Africa, was Middlesex's leading run-scorer in the championship in 2010, but had not passed 50 in the competition this season until Saturday. He was initially watchful, taking account of conditions that were trickier than most of his colleagues were prepared to acknowledge. But once in sight of his century, he let the cover drives and pulls flow. His only scare was a big lbw appeal on 99 against the lively Mark Turner, one of eight bowlers used by Derbyshire who flagged after tea on a hot afternoon.
Earlier, Sam Robson, the opener, made 94 for the third time this season. On the other occasions he was not out in successful run chases. He had looked untroubled and set for a century until he reached for a wide half-volley and was caught low in the gully. Robson, comes from Paddington, which sounds standard fare for a Middlesex batsman except this is Paddington, Sydney. Since re-establishing himself in the side in May, the 22-year-old has been a key component in Middlesex's promotion push.
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