Shah shines for Middlesex

Middlesex batsman Owais Shah hits out on his way to a match-winning unbeaten innings of 61 against Surrey

Owais Shah showed that orthodox batting still has a place in the Twenty20 Cup with a classy unbeaten 61 off 41 balls which guided Middlesex to a seven-wicket win over Surrey at the Brit Oval.

The majority of Shah’s runs, including three towering sixes, came from straight drives as the Panthers accelerated impressively after a quiet start to pass the Brown Caps’ total of 160 for five with 10 balls to spare.

Holders Middlesex lost their first seven South Group games, but will hope to finish their inconsistent campaign on a high with a third straight win against Sussex tomorrow.

Surrey, by contrast, have now lost five successive matches.

They seemed capable of defending their total when they reduced Middlesex to 46 for two in the seventh over.

But Shah hit glorious 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.

Dawid Malan, Shah’s partner in an exhilarating third-wicket stand of 100 in 10 overs, caught the mood with another six in an Elliott over which cost 19 runs.

Only 15 runs were needed when Malan presented Schofield with a return catch in the 17th over.

Surrey’s new-look opening combination, Michael Brown and Chris Jordan, had given the Brown Caps an excellent start, adding 76 in nine overs before Jordan hesitated and slipped to be run out by yards.

Leg-spinner Malan had already started to stem the flow of runs with a maiden in his first over, the ninth of the innings.

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.

Malan’s four overs cost only 17 runs and he continued to frustrate Surrey’s attempts at acceleration.

Brown holed out on the midwicket boundary in the penultimate over, having made 77 off 54 balls, and the Brown Caps captain, Usman Afzaal, was run out for 25 after a brilliant throw from Shah.