Joe Denly admits his place in the Middlesex middle-order is under scrutiny despite a first County Championship half-century of the season against Northants at Wantage Road yesterday.

Denly had endured a miserable start to 2014 with just 26 runs in his first four first-class innings – this after being left out altogether from the first two County Championship games of the campaign.

His 70 against the Tudor Rose county will relieve some of the pressure on the former Kent man who is also undergoing a transition from opener to middle-order batsmen in the quest to rediscover the form which saw him play one-day cricket for England prior to joining the tenants of Lords’ in 2011.

However, while relieved to have got some bat on ball the 28-year-old confessed to feeling he had left a bigger score out in the middle on a day when team-mate and best friend Neil Dexter made a career-best 163 not out and therefore the pressure on him remains.

He said: “You could say I feel joy, relief, gratitude – all of the above. Obviously it is nice to get a score, but it was a bit disappointing not to kick on and get a big one.

“I had a great chance today to do a similar thing to what Neil did and was not able to do that.

“It was tough as the pitch was quite slow and they set quite defensive fields, so it was hard to get the ball away. You had to be patient, grind it out and earn that right to get those runs later on in the day as Neil did.

“There is always pressure when you are not scoring runs and the next innings I am starting on nought again so there will be pressure then as well, but it is always nice to spend time in the middle and I am looking forward to it. Hopefully I can kick on from here.”

For inspiration Denly need look no further than Dexter, a man who he came through the ranks with at Canterbury before their respective moves to London.

Dexter’s fluent century was further evidence he is emerging from a difficult two years himself during which the loss of his brother Keith in December 2011 was followed by stepping down from first the four-day and the one-day captaincy in the quest to rediscover the run-making form of his early days at Lords.’

“Neil has had a tough couple of years, but he is playing fantastically well now with his bowling and his batting, said Denly.

“He is in top form at the moment and is enjoying family life with his new-born baby as well.”

Before his next stint in the middle Denly is hopeful of mopping up Northants resistance this morning, having bagged a rare wicket on a pitch showing increasing signs of turn.

The occasional spinner snapped up Matt Spriegel with the last ball of the third day, leaving the hosts still needing 172 to avoid an innings defeat.

For Denly it was a real bonus on top of his earlier runs.

He added: “There was a nice bit of rough outside the left-hander’s off-stump, so I decided to chuck it out there, give it a bit of a rip and managed to get a couple to turn.

“It was just an inside edge onto the pad which popped up nicely to Ollie (Rayner) and he grabbed it.

“It was good to get a wicket and hopefully there are more to come tomorrow.”