The odds against Yorkshire retaining the title may be shortening every day but Middlesex ought not to be discounted as contenders just yet, even though Andrew Gale’s team clearly have some momentum.

Jon Culley at Trent Bridge06-Jul-2015Nottinghamshire 180 for 4 (Taylor 77, Franklin 3-26) trail Middlesex 374 (Malan 182*, Harris 73) by 194 runs
ScorecardBrendan Taylor led a steady Notts reply•Getty ImagesThe odds against Yorkshire retaining the title may be shortening every day but Middlesex ought not to be discounted as contenders just yet, even though Andrew Gale’s team clearly have some momentum. A win for Middlesex here would take them above Durham into second place, albeit having played a game more than the leaders.Yorkshire, moreover, would have a comfortable lead (assuming they go on to beat Warwickshire at Edgbaston). Yet if Middlesex can stay in touch there is the possibility that Yorkshire’s visit to Lord’s in the penultimate round in September could be a title decider. Yorkshire won by four wickets at Headingley in June but it was a close contest in which the champions needed another outstanding performance from Jonny Bairstow to give them the edge.Middlesex strengthened their first-day position by adding 62 runs before Nottinghamshire could claim the final three wickets. The eighth-wicket partnership that turned Sunday in Middlesex’s favour was broken in the eighth over of the morning by a Brett Hutton inswinger. Toby Roland-Jones fell to another swinging ball from Hutton to which he offered no shot but his runs and those of Tim Murtagh were valuable in helping Dawid Malan extended his career-best to 182 not out as Middlesex claimed a fourth batting point for only the second time this season.Nottinghamshire announced the highest membership numbers in the county’s 174-year history, revealing a 15 per cent increase to 8342 for 2015, during the afternoon. Those members need to show some forbearance at the moment, as their team struggles to recover from a poor couple of months in Championship cricket and Twenty20, which has clearly been a key driver in their popularity boom. The win over Worcestershire last week was a step in the right direction in their bid to avoid relegation in the Championship, which would clearly have negative consequences for membership next year. Yet the shortcomings that have undermined them in the last couple of months remain.Alex Hales, whose compelling start to the season brought him 639 runs from his first eight first-class innings, has only 90 from his last seven, the latest ending on 18 when he went to cut a ball from Harris but succeeded only in chopping it down on to his stumps. Michael Lumb, still feeling his way back after missing the first two months of the season following an arm operation, pushed tentatively at a ball from James Franklin and was caught behind.Franklin, the veteran former New Zealand left-armer, was the only Middlesex bowler who managed to make the ball swing to any noteworthy degree. It was the first over of his second spell, from the Pavilion End, that undermined Nottinghamshire’s progress towards a more substantial reply after Brendan Taylor and Steven Mullaney had added 71 for the third wicket. He bowled Taylor with an inswinger that the former Zimbabwean captain played all round and, two balls later, took a return catch in his follow-through as Riki Wessels tried to flick the ball away on the leg side.Taylor made 77, his second half-century in as many matches and his fifth all told in the Championship, three of which he has converted to hundreds. He has 742 runs for the season so far, which is a fair return given that his signing brought Nottinghamshire more criticism for importing another batsman at the expense of home grown talent, although with Jake Libby injured after his impressive introduction last season there were extenuating circumstances. Only Jonny Bairstow and James Hildreth have scored more Division One runs than Taylor.Speaking afterwards, Taylor said he felt he owed his team-mates some runs after putting down two chances in the slips on the first day. “I’ve been fairly consistent in the slips over the years but I’ve dropped a few too many this season,” he said. “It’s been a little different catching Duke balls to Kookaburra ones but they’ve been very catchable chances I’ve put down. There’s no excuses.”Samit Patel cannot cite unfamiliarity with the make of ball as an explanation for his two misses at point on Sunday, which between them cost 162 runs, nine to Harris and 153 to Malan. He had carefully cleared 12 of his personal deficit by the close, with Mullaney, who batted impressively under some pressure, unbeaten on 57, his second half-century of the season, although with 45 more needed to reach Nottinghamshire’s first target, of avoiding the follow-on, the two will need to work with equal diligence on the third morning.