esult: Surrey 189-9 beat Middlesex 181-6 by eight runs.
By Ben Kosky
WILL Jacks struck his third half-century in four games as Surrey held off a late fightback by Middlesex at Lord’s to maintain their bid for top spot in the Vitality Blast South Group.
The Surrey opener top-scored with 52 from 36 balls to set up the visitors’ total of 189 for nine, despite a season’s best of four for 33 by Middlesex’s Ryan Higgins.
Stephen Eskinazi hammered 53 from 38 at the top of the order to keep the home side in contention during the chase, yet they looked doomed after he and skipper Leus du Plooy departed in quick succession.
A flurry of late hitting by Higgins and Luke Hollman, who shared an unbroken partnership of 62 from 29, took the contest into the final over, but their efforts were not quite enough to edge Middlesex over the line.
Having won the toss, Surrey made a sedate start with the bat until the fifth over, which yielded 23 as Jacks and Ryan Patel (23 from 11) both blazed Noah Cornwell for six over the short boundary.
But their stand of 66 from 35 ended when Patel was caught behind swishing at a Higgins bouncer and the visitors lost a further three wickets for 22, including Jacks who was lured out of his crease by Hollman (two for 34) shortly after reaching his half-century.
Dan Lawrence and Tom Curran repaired the damage with a partnership of 61 from 35, the latter finding the boundary regularly and looking on course to register a Blast 50 for the first time this season.
Curran missed out, however, caught behind slashing at Higgins for 47 from 22 as Middlesex fought back again before Jordan Clark hammered Tom Helm for two huge sixes in the final over to finish on a high.
Eskinazi was fast out of the traps when the home side launched their pursuit, pulling Reece Topley’s second ball over the midwicket fence and repeatedly peppering the boundaries in the powerplay overs.
Former Surrey batter Ben Geddes fell to a fine diving catch by Jamie Overton at cover, but that was overshadowed by Sam Curran’s remarkable one-handed grab running back from mid-on to remove Max Holden.
Although Eskinazi somehow survived what appeared to be a clear catch behind off Chris Jordan, Middlesex’s momentum dipped until Du Plooy’s breezy knock of 29 from 17 gave them fresh hope.
That evaporated when substitute fielder Adam Thomas ran out Du Plooy with a direct hit from point and Eskinazi’s departure two balls later, caught at short third, dealt the Seaxes a decisive blow.
Higgins (29 from 18) and Hollman kept up the battle, with the left-hander finishing on 32 from 14 after slamming Sam Curran for three fours and a six in the penultimate over, but Jordan (two for 28) kept his cool to close out the game.
“It probably got a little closer than we would have liked, but it’s a great wicket here and it’s sometimes tough to defend with the short side, so I think we did really nicely to get the job done,” Curran said.
“When you have someone like Jordan Clark coming in at 10, it gives you a little bit of peace of mind to play at your tempo, to try to be positive without being reckless. I think that was the mindset we had.
“We’ve got a very experienced bowling attack and I thought we showed that experience and class to close this one out.
“We play on Friday then we’ve got six weeks until the quarter-final, which is a tough one but at the same time we want to go into that having finished top of the group and not getting complacent.”
