North hundred too much for Middlesex

Marcus North hit a brilliant 137 not out as Glamorgan made it two wins from two matches in this season's Yorkshire Bank 40 by overpowering a below-par Middlesex by 26 runs at Lord's.

Glamorgan skipper and former Australia batsman North led from the front. He hit 16 fours and three sixes in his 98-ball innings and featured in an unbroken stand of 156 in just 16.3 overs with Jim Allenby, who scored 69 not out from 50 balls.

Opener Will Bragg also contributed a 72-ball 62, riding some early luck against the new ball after Middlesex had decided to bowl first on an excellent surface.

Bragg's partnership of 86 in 16 overs with North got the Glamorgan innings going again after they slid to 38 for 2 when Mark Wallace was caught at first slip and Chris Cooke, later in the same over, was run out by Joe Denly's direct hit from cover.

Dawid Malan, Chris Rogers and Paul Stirling all briefly threatened to do something spectacular at the top of the Middlesex batting order but Will Owen took three wickets in 18 balls from the Pavilion End, after Allenby had initially removed Rogers.

And, with slow left-arm spinner Dean Cosker also putting in a tight spell, it was only a matter of time from 110 for 4 - despite Berg's late hitting - before Glamorgan's victory was confirmed. Berg made a brave 75 from 57 balls but it only served to reduce the margin of victory.

It was a fine effort by Glamorgan, who had totalled 285 for 7 from their 40 overs in the previous day's 28-run win against Yorkshire at Colwyn Bay but then had to endure a near five-hour journey to London from north Wales before waking up to prepare for this match.

Rogers, fresh from his match-saving County Championship double hundred against Surrey, produced some eye-catching strokes in his 22 before being caught off a leading edge at cover, but Malan had already survived a stumping chance on 35 when he fell at the same score, lifting a catch to point off Owen.

Denly went for 11, caught at the wicket driving loosely at a wider ball from Owen, who then struck a crucial blow for his team by bowling the hard-hitting Stirling for 36 through an ugly legside heave.

Neil Dexter drove one six over long on against Michael Hogan in his 24, but Hogan soon had him caught at deep cover and Berg was then left with only the tail for company. He hit Owen for two defiant sixes but saw wickets continue to tumble as John Simpson was caught at deep mid-off, Josh Davey was held at deep midwicket and Toby Roland-Jones also hit a catch into the deep. Berg was finally ninth out, bowled by Hogan after hitting six fours besides his two sixes.

The North-Allenby partnership was far too much for Middlesex. Hardly anything got past the bat, once they both got their eye in, as they took full advantage of a superb batting pitch and Middlesex's attack was beginning to look very ragged by the time the overs ran out.

The last five overs of the innings brought 60 runs and, in all, 180 runs were plundered from the last 20.3 overs only for the loss of Bragg, who was athletically held by a diving Tom Smith at backward point off Davey.

North's first six was swung over midwicket off a Dexter full toss, just before Glamorgan's 200 arrived in the 34th over, and he later added a powerful hit into the grandstand off Roland-Jones's penultimate ball of the innings.

Allenby, too, produced some meaty blows as he went past 50 from 39 balls, including a full-blooded club over wide long on from a couple of steps down the pitch against an astonished Corey Collymore.