Another 5-fer for Harmer as Essex fight back against champions Middlesex in style (From Braintree and Witham Times)

SIMON Harmer followed up his fourteen-wicket spree against Warwickshire last week with another five-wicket haul to roll over Middlesex for 246 in the day-night County Championship match at Chelmsford.

The South African off-spinner profited most from the first use of the pink ball in domestic cricket as he returned figures of five for 77 from his 20 overs.

In his pomp he took three wickets for one run in 12 balls to reduce Middlesex from 225 for six to 231 for nine.

Paul Stirling ruined Harmer’s figures during a 50-ball 77 that included eight fours and five sixes.

The reigning champions had looked set fair with a third-wicket stand of 126 between Dawid Malan and Steve Eskinazi after they had slipped to two for two in the third over.

Mohammad Amir and Jamie Porter had been almost unplayable in the first 20 minutes as the ball swung prodigiously. Middlesex had given Essex first go with the pink ball and must have regretted the decision in the short-term.

Amir had his first Essex wicket on the board with the sixth ball of his opening spell, beating Nick Gubbins with one that came in and trapped him lbw.

Five balls later, Nick Compton got one that held up and snicked Porter behind.

Malan led the Middlesex recovery as the ball suddenly grew softer and when Amir returned for a second spell, Eskinazi greeted him with two crisp drives to the cover boundary that had the Pakistani howling in frustration.

Both batsmen reached their fifties in the first over after the first break, from successive balls with Eskinazi, on 55, turning one through Dan Lawrence’s hands at short leg.

The second-wicket pair had put on 126 in 33 overs when Harmer got one to straighten and take the outside of Malan’s bat for James Foster to pouch.

Eskinazi followed soon after, edging Porter to Alastair Cook at first slip for a 111-ball 66.

And Amir had John Simpson shuffled tentatively on to his back foot and was pinned plumb in front as Middlesex slipped from 126 for two to 158 for five in five overs.

Stirling decided that the best way to deal with Harmer was to hit to leg. He lofted a six over cow corner and then swept square for four. But he was given a life on 23 when he was dropped by the normally reliable Harmer at second slip off Amir. It proved costly: 12 balls later Stirling was raising his bat for his fifty, having hit six fours and two sixes.

Ryan Higgins stood at the other end and contributed just six to a sixth-wicket stand of 61, before suffering a rush of blood and hitting Harmer up in the air so high that Tom Westley covered the 20 yards from mid-on to mid-off and still had time to steady himself to take the catch.

Stirling continued unabated and at one stage had hit three sixes in six balls, hooking two of them square in an over from Paul Walter, and lifting Harmer straight back over the bowler’s head.

But the one-man assault ended when he turned Harmer into Ryan ten Doeschate’s hands at cover for a 50-ball 77, and Olly Rayner went in similar fashion in the same over.

Harmer had a fifth wicket in his next over when Tim Murtagh was another lbw victim.

The innings ended in its 60th over when Ravi Bopara caught and bowled Steven Finn.

Cook and Browne went along serenely in reply with the England opener making the most of the experience of batting in the twilight.

He was dropped in the covers by Gubbins off Finn on 48 before bringing up his fourth Championship score of more than fifty from 67 balls, nine of them hit to the boundary.

Essex closed on 106-0, 140 runs behind Middlesex.

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