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Middlesex beat Surrey in front of a record crowd at Lord's

England one-day captain Eoin Morgan played a fine innings for Middlesex
Image: England one-day captain Eoin Morgan played a fine innings for Middlesex

Middlesex produced a superb run chase to beat Surrey by five wickets in the NatWest T20 Blast at Lord's and climb to third place in the South Group.

A record crowd for a domestic Twenty20 match in England of 27,119 packed into the ground and were rewarded with a fine match.

Surrey openers Jason Roy (50 off 25 balls) and Aaron Finch (78 off 59) punished the Middlesex attack as the visitors racked up 196-6.

But Paul Stirling (34 off 16) got Middlesex off to a great start, and Eoin Morgan (42 off 24), George Bailey (55 off 43) and John Simpson (43 off 26) capitalised on his good work.

The hosts reached their highest successful T20 run chase with five balls to spare, earning a sixth South Group win and putting them in with a good chance of quarter-final qualification, with three games to play.

But Surrey, with only 10 points from 12 games, appear to be struggling in terms of last-eight qualification.

Having chosen to bat first, Surrey raced to 87 in seven overs as Roy and Finch made hay.

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Finch continued merrily along but leg-spinner Nathan Sowter (2-29) removed Steven Davies (five) and Rory Burns (15), while South Africa all-rounder Chris Morris took a while to get going before making 25 off 19.

Finch was one of two wickets to fall to James Fuller (2-41) in the final over as Surrey fell short of 200, and Middlesex opener Stirling then took two fours and six from Sam Curran's opening over when the hosts batted.

After Stirling skied to short mid-wicket off Jade Dernbach (3-33), Morgan took charge, swinging a full toss from Azhar Mahmood on to the roof of the Grand Stand and also adding six boundaries in a fine knock.

He and Bailey added 64 for the third wicket, and the Aussie then joined forces with Simpson for a decisive stand of 67 from just under seven overs.

James Franklin (centre) of Middlesex celebrates the dismissal of Jason Roy
Image: James Franklin (centre) of Middlesex celebrates the dismissal of Jason Roy

Simpson and Bailey fell with the finishing line in sight but Ryan Higgins reverse-hit the first ball of the final over from Gareth Batty for the winning boundary.

In the evening's other match, Sussex beat Essex by 24 runs at Chelmsford, with Chris Jordan to the fore.

Sussex batted first and got off to a decent start thanks to the efforts of Chris Nash (25), Luke Wright (32), Philip Salt (33) and Ross Taylor (24).

It was 119-4 when Jordan arrived in the 14th over and he proceeded to smash 45 not out from 21 balls, including five sixes, as Sussex reached 200-6.

Essex opener Dan Lawrence managed 36 in reply and captain Ravi Bopara chipped in with 32, but he then fell to Mustafizur Rahman, who finished with 4-23 as he raced through the Essex middle and lower-order.

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