County Championship: James Anderson takes two wickets as Lancashire collapse

Middlesex had a wicket to take the lead in the second over of the day when temporary opener George Balderson was undone by a Higgins delivery that sent him back lbw for eight.

Jennings and Josh Bohannon then put on 56 runs – the highest partnership of the innings – although the bowling was tight.

But Higgins returned in his second spell and Bohannon hit his first ball as he tickled the back of 20 runs.

Then there was a big third wicket before lunch when Australia batsman Marcus Harris (five) was fooled by a ball outside the off-stump and drove it to mid-on where Navya Sharma took a good, low diving catch to send the hosts 74-3.

Just four more runs were added before lunch and after the interval, Jennings brought up his third half-century in five innings off 107 balls as Lancashire looked to rebuild.

But Michael Jones was cleaned up by a lovely delivery from Kishore Morgan to make it 115-4 for 27 and a frantic innings by Matty Hurst (seven) made it 128-5 and ended with an easy catch at fourth slip off Sharma.

Green joined Jennings at the crease and when the overseas players were dropped for 13, Middlesex claimed the prized scalp when Rowland-Jones produced a fine ball that Jennings bowled to leave the hosts in trouble at 151-6.

After just 13 runs, Tom Hartley took Higgins for his third wicket with a catch for three.

Bad light made tea before Lancashire’s last rites of the innings as Tom Bailey fell for 11, Mitch Stanley was clean bowled by Rowland-Jones for one and Green fell last ball, bowled by 18-year-old Morgan to finish with 3-41.