Hilton leads Middlesex to one-wicket victory

Australian allrounder Hilton Cartwright has helped steer Middlesex to a thrilling come-from-behind victory in their County Championship clash with Leicestershire.

Cartwright pulled out his best batting performance of the season, scoring 80 off 172 balls in a nail-biting one-wicket win on Saturday’s final day at Grace Road.

With Middlesex chasing 381 to win, Cartwright arrived at the crease with the side languishing at 5-149. Their chances were further diminished when Stevie Eskinazi (97), a fellow Western Australian native, was run-out in a mix up.

But the powerful Cartwright cracked 11 boundaries to put Middlesex within touching distance of an unlikely victory, before No.9 James Harris (58 not out) and last man Tim Murtagh (three not out) got them home in a tense finale.

Cartwright’s knock comes after a lean start with the bat to his first spell in county cricket; even including Sunday’s score of 80, he’s managed just 191 runs at 19.10 from 10 Championship innings.

The right-armer quick has however chipped in with some handy overs, collecting 14 wickets at 24. 

"It was really nice for Hilton to get some runs and show the quality of player we know he is," Middlesex captain Dawid Malan told the BBC. "He just hasn’t had things go his way this year. 

"It was nice for him to come in and influence this game at a time when we really needed him."

Leicestershire had been in the driver's seat for the first two days of the match, racking up 427 in their first innings thanks to Colin Ackermann's unbeaten 196 before Middlesex folded for 233.

Trailing by 194, Leicestershire were left to rue their decision not to enforce the follow on, knocked over for just 186 to set up Middlesex’s chase. 

The win sees the Lord's-based club rise to the fifth on the Division Two standings.

"We showed great spirit in getting over the line," Middlesex coach Richard Scott said. "To chase 380 on what was a five-day old wicket was immense

"I think we learned a harsh lesson here but a good one in that we stuck together, beat the dominant side on the last two days and got a good result in the end.

"We've played better cricket than our standing on the table suggests. There are a lot of youngsters in the side, even our overseas player, Hilton, is only 26."

In Swansea, Australia Test No.3 Usman Khawaja's second successive century wasn't enough to get Glamorgan over the line against Derbyshire.

Khawaja brought up a quick-fire ton on the final day of the match, finishing with 126 with 15 fours and a pair of sixes to set Derbyshire 325 to win. 

Glamorgan captain and former WA paceman Michael Hogan took 4-43 but the visitors held on to finish 8-147 to seal a draw.