Irani leads from the front as Essex defeat Middlesex in NUL

Essex skipper Ronnie Irani steered his side to their third NUL win of the season with an unbeaten 56 that helped secure a four-wicket victory over Middlesex with more than six overs to spare in their day/night match at Colchester.

Chasing a target of 174 for victory on a slow pitch, the home side started positively and had reached 48-2 in the 14th over but the loss of two wickets in three overs to Chad Keegan put Middlesex back into contention.

Stuart Law and Ronnie Irani combined for a significant partnership worth 70 runs in 79 balls as they pushed the singles to the deeper set fielders. Law had just reached his half-century with a splendid lofted drive over mid off when he tried a repeat stroke and was caught to give Keegan his third wicket and leave the home side 123-5 with 16 overs remaining.

Keegan finished with figures of 3-28 but Irani continued to prosper and took 12 runs from an over from Tim Bloomfield to put his side in sight of victory. The re-introduction of Simon Cook into the attack produced immediate reward with Paul Grayson caught for seven but with only 18 runs required, Irani was in no mood to be denied.

He reached his half-century with a boundary off Paul Weekes and in the next over struck his fourth boundary and the winning runs to lift Essex off the foot of the Norwich Union Second Division table.

For the visitors, opener Andrew Strauss has batted steadily to score 59 although he utilized 30 overs and once he had been dismissed, the innings relied on a partnership of 48 in 12 overs between Paul Weekes and James Dalrymple to give the total some substance. Weekes struck two boundaries in his 36 whilst his enterprising partner collected an unbeaten 38 from 39 deliveries.