Middlesex shine on a historical night

Middlesex 199 for 6 (Joyce 68, Clare 3-44) beat Derbyshire 196 for 9 (Dighton 67, Dalrymple 3-36) by four wickets
Scorecard

Michael Dighton heaves to leg on his way to Derbyshire's top score of 67 © Getty Images

Middlesex overcame a few late jitters to beat Derbyshire by three wickets with two overs to spare in the Pro40 Division Two. The match, however, will be best remembered for being the first under lights at Lord's.

Around 5000 people turned up to see history made - probably double what Middlesex might have expected and enough to offset much of the £30,000 it cost to hire the floodlights.

On the same pitch used for Saturday's NatWest Series decider, Derbyshire made a much better start than India had but ended up with a similar total. At 114 for 1 in the 22nd over they were cruising, but James Dalrymple turned the game when he removed Michael Dighton and Simon Katich in successive overs after breaking the second-wicket stand by dismissing Travis Birt.

As the shadows spread across the ground, batting became harder and the innings lost its way. Tim Murtagh all but polished things off with three wickets in five balls near the end.

Middlesex thrived under the lights, Ed Joyce and Ed Smith piercing the covers with some rasping drives in an opening stand of 91 which was ended when Joyce chipped back to Jon Clare. Andrew Strauss kept things well above the asking rate with a 40-ball 43 but then, despite being well ahead of the clock, Middlesex got rather bogged down within sight of victory.