Finn fires England imaginations - again

If it is the start of the English season, it must be time to talk about Steven Finn. Every summer it is a source of fascination whether Finn can channel his palpable gifts - pace, bounce from his 6ft 7in frame and the outswing that he has honed in recent years - and become the bowler England supporters have long seen in their mind's eye. A man not flitting between squads but one who is, instead, a persistent menace in international cricket.

It remains far too soon to tell whether this is the summer when Finn makes that transition, rather than just tantalisingly hinting at it, but on a docile Lord's pitch, he produced a performance of hostility and great skill. It was not so much the four wickets he took - a quick, short ball that Simon Harmer pulled to midwicket; Dan Lawrence deceived with a ball that held its line, rather than swinging away; and a ball that slanted into Neil Wagner and uprooted off stump, to add to the wicket of Tom Westley on the second evening - as his parsimony and immaculate control.

Even when bowling loosely, he has always been able to produce brilliant deliveries. But seldom can he have bowled so few poor balls. In 22.1 overs, he conceded just 51 runs; yielding 2.30 an over, Finn was the most frugal of Middlesex's bowling quintet.

"It's as good as I've felt for a while," Finn said. "Across my career it's the one side of my game that has not been my best, my economy rate. It's about keeping it simple, it doesn't just happen. Without chasing wickets you get your rewards later in the day.

"I felt in good rhythm at Hampshire without getting too many rewards and yesterday as well. Today I bowled two long spells and then came back to get wickets at the end."

Few cricketers are aware of the vagaries of professional sport like Finn. The 46 Test wickets at 26.23 apiece he took in 2010, his first year of international cricket, remains his best annual haul for England; last year, he took just 17 Test wickets at 46.64 apiece. Yet his talents are so seductive that England's interest has never gone away, and here he produced a performance to gladden the selectors' hearts. If he does it again on the final day, Middlesex will record their first Championship victory of the season, and the case for including Finn in the Champions Trophy squad will become even stronger.

"There's enough eyes around, and people in the know realise when you're in good rhythm and bowling well," he said, with the sense of a man who has been here before. "I don't think everything depends on tomorrow but if you have another good day it furthers your claims even more."

The rest of Middlesex's bowlers were impressive, too, as they needed to be to restrict Essex to 295 on a picturesque Lord's day. Toby Roland-Jones generated persistent swing, Ollie Rayner showed his nous, James Franklin embraced bowling with the older ball and Tim Murtagh bowled an expert spell up the slope with the second new ball to account for Ryan ten Doeschate.

Against such a well-balanced attack, Lawrence and Adam Wheater needed to summon all of their resolve after Ravi Bopara's early dismissal, driving indolently at Roland-Jones.

Lawrence has won rightful acclaim as one of English cricket's most promising talents. Perhaps his defining quality is how quickly he judges length, as revealed by a sumptuous push through midwicket for four when Franklin slightly overpitched; a shot to savour. And, just as in a match-saving 141 not out against Lancashire a fortnight ago, Lawrence married such strokeplay with technical fortitude and equanimity rarely spotted in a 19-year-old.

Wheater's contribution was particularly welcome. Having helped to end the career of the brilliant wicketkeeper Michael Bates at Hampshire, his return to Essex has dislodged James Foster, widely acclaimed as the finest of his generation. And Wheater was not even able to score the runs needed to justify the decision, mustering only six in his first three innings of the season.

His jittery start betrayed a man woefully short of form, and one badly in need of fortune. That he got, and in bountiful quantity, when he was dropped three times over three consecutive overs off Roland-Jones - by Rayner at second slip, by John Simpson, diving to his right in front of first slip, and by Sam Robson at third slip. In between times Wheater drove with class and swept dexterously, as befitting a man with a first-class average not far shy of 40.

Yet Wheater's dismissal, rather irresponsibly caught at square leg sweeping Ollie Rayner just before the second new ball, triggered the loss of Essex's last five wickets for 42 runs. A lead of 212, though, was not enough to entice James Franklin to make Essex follow on. It was a "50-50 decision," Finn said, and cautious, especially with the threat of rain on the final afternoon. Still, Middlesex ought to have claimed the first of the ten wickets needed, only for Nick Browne to be reprieved by Rayner when he edged Roland-Jones to second slip.

After Middlesex decided to bat again, what came next was utterly predictable. With the intensity seeping out of the game, their top three all made breezy half-centuries; all squandered the chance to score twin hundreds in the match, Sam Robson coming closest with 77. The only puzzle was why they felt the need to bat on past a target of 420, which Essex's openers doubtless appreciated.

Only one passage of play is worth recalling. In the 33rd over, Stevie Eskinazi scooped Jamie Porter for six, then went down on his front knee to launch him over midwicket, just as Mal Loye once did to Glenn McGrath, before clipping the next delivery over square leg for another six. After launching Harmer over midwicket next ball, Eskinazi was then caught on the extra cover boundary attempting a fifth six in five deliveries. Most remarkable of all was the notion that Eskinazi is normally regarded as relatively sedate, so much so that he has only played a single white-ball game for Middlesex. That will surely change soon.