AT times, as Owais Shah made his lone stand against the Derbyshire bowling yesterday, it was hard to understand how England could name a Test side without his name in it.

At other times, he supplied his own answer to that question but his wonderful century was the feature of the third day in Derbyshire's LV County Championship match against Middlesex.

Without him, Middlesex would have been in awful trouble but Shah's unbeaten 129 restricted the home side to a first innings lead of 21.

By the close, Derbyshire had extended their lead to 159, with Chris Rogers setting them away at a gallop by striking a swift 76 in their bid to keep the possibility of a victory alive.

Middlesex, too, deserve credit for their part in keeping the outcome bubbling through their wholly unexpected declaration at 226-9 on the stroke of tea.

When captain Shaun Udal called his last pair in – mid-over – the partnership was worth 31, making it the second most fruitful of the innings and Alan Richardson was unleashing a Steffan Jones-like flurry that had made him Middlesex's second-highest scorer with 18 not out.

By then, Shah was giving the impression of a man content to put a not out total into the scorebook; pushing the easy single and leaving the more risky shots to his partner. That may have played a part in Udal deciding there was little point in leaving his players out there.

Though they could not find a way past Shah, this was a very fine performance from the Derbyshire bowlers.

Tim Groenewald did not quite manage the sustained accuracy of his second innings spell at Cheltenham but took two good wickets, while there was one each for Jones and Nantie Hayward.

Unquestionably, however, the pick of the attack was again Graham Wagg. He already had one wicket in his pocket overnight and added a second yesterday morning when Eoin Morgan was well claimed by Tom Poynton, in as substitute wicketkeeper for the injured Jamie Pipe.

That was when he was in left-arm seamer mode but a switch to spin for his second spell left Middlesex in deeper trouble after lunch.

He coaxed David Nash into clipping the ball gently into short leg's hands and completely deceived Gareth Berg to bowl him. After Groenewald removed Udal and Tim Murtagh, Wagg bowled Steven Finn to leave Middlesex 195-9 and give him his final wicket in figures of 5-88.

All this time, Shah appeared to be playing a different game and even though he didn't exactly go out with a flourish, he struck 21 fours and played beautifully.

Rogers, out for a duck in the first innings, also made a mockery of all that had gone before by racing to his half-century in 55 balls and striking 11 fours before he, rather tamely, pulled a ball from occasional leg-spinner Dawid Malan to midwicket.

The skipper faced a large proportion of the strike in a partnership of 97 with Wayne Madsen, who was still there at the close with 34 not out in a score of 138-2.

The game is still set up quite nicely and Derbyshire are still in with a chance of winning it but will need no reminding that they will have to find a way to remove Shah.