Panthers pounce again

Shah knock sinks Surrey at The Oval

Last updated: 27th June 2009   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Panthers pounce again

Henderson and Shah see Middlesex home

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Twenty20 Cup - South Division
The Brit Oval
Surrey 160-5 (M J Brown 77) v Middlesex 162-3 (O A Shah 61 no)
Middlesex beat Surrey by 7 wkts

Owais Shah struck an unbeaten 61 off 41 balls as Middlesex claimed back-to-back Twenty20 Cup wins with a seven-wicket triumph over Surrey.

The victory was the defending champions' second in the space of two days, and Middlesex will now be hoping to end a woeful defence of their title with a third successive win against Sussex on Sunday.

Surrey, by contrast, have now lost five successive matches and are level on points with the Panthers with two wins from nine games.

The Brown Caps' new-look opening combination, Michael Brown and Chris Jordan, had powered the hosts off to an excellent start, adding 76 in nine overs before the latter was run out for 28.

Panthers all-rounder Dawid Malan had already started to stem the flow of runs with a maiden in his first over, and he went on to finish with 0-17 from his four overs.

Spectacular

Brown, playing his first game in the competition for Surrey, specialised in canny deflections to the fine-leg boundary as he reached his first Twenty20 fifty off 33 balls.

The former Hampshire opener's fine innings came to an end when he holed out on the midwicket boundary in the penultimate over, having made 77 off 54 balls.

Brown Caps captain Usman Afzaal was then run out for 25 after a brilliant throw from Shah as Surrey ended on 160-5..

The visitors made a fine start to the defence of their total when they reduced Middlesex to 46-2 in the seventh over.

But Shah smashed straight sixes in each of leg-spinner Chris Schofield's first two overs and followed up with a third spectacular hit off Grant Elliott's medium pace as Surrey's fielding disintegrated.

Left-hander Malan, Shah's partner in a match-winning third-wicket stand of 100 in 10 overs, also took the game away from the Brown Caps with 38 before he presented a return catch to Schofield.

Only 15 runs were required when Tyron Henderson came to the crease in the 18th over, and he, in partnership with Shah, saw Middlesex over the winning line with 10 balls to spare.

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