Honours finished even as Essex and Middlesex warmed up for the new season at Chelmsford yesterday with a couple of matches played out under the Twenty20 Cup regulations.

The competition starts this summer and the format saw the visitors romp to an easy ten-wicket triumph in the opening game.

But Essex restored lost pride with a six-wicket victory in the afternoon battle thanks to a swashbuckling 89 in 42 balls from Graham Napier.

There was plenty of leather flying to the boundary boards to keep the small crowds interested but there was nothing to get really excited about.

The purpose of the exercise was to taste action in the middle and Essex took full advantage of the situation to field 16 players during both duels.

But Nasser Hussain, Ronnie Irani and Andy Flower were not among them as they were still resting following their World Cup exertions.

The first match began disastrously for Essex as Darren Robinson lost his middle stump to Chad Keegan's first delivery, while James Foster was run out attempting a single from the fourth, still without a run on the board.

Jon Dakin and Paul Grayson repaired the damage with 32 and 26 respectively, while Napier provided a warning of what was to come later by hammering 29 not out from 14 deliveries to carry the county to 140-7.

But it soon became apparent that total would not be enough as Andrew Strauss and Paul Weekes got into their stride to punish some indifferent bowling.

Andy Clarke, Nick Denning and Grayson all went for ten or more an over and it was left to Scott Brant -- Essex's overseas paceman from Australia -- and off-spinner James Middlebrook to stem the flow.

But Strauss, with five sixes and seven fours in his 74 from 43 balls, and Weekes's unbeaten 57, which contained nine boundaries, saw Middlesex to the winning post with nearly five over to spare.

It was a different story second time around as Essex reached their target of 180 with ten balls remaining.

Middlesex had earlier made 161-8 but Essex were penalised six runs an over for not sending down their full allocation in the 75 minutes allowed.

This left them gifting their opponents a total of 18 but Will Jefferson, with 50 from 37 balls, pointed the way towards Essex gaining their revenge.

But it was an explosive innings from Napier who stole the show. His 89 contained seven sixes, four of them in an over from spinner Weeks, in addition to four other boundaries.

Published Wednesday, April 9, 2003

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