Surrey face an uphill task to defend their Benson & Hedges Cup crown after losing their third straight match of the competition to Essex at Chelmsford.

Essex's Zimbabwean star Andy Flower led his side home with a superb 98 as the hosts coasted to their target with four wickets and just under five wickets to spare.

Flower's innings, which took him 114 balls, including eleven fours and one six, resurrected Essex after they stumbled to eight for two.

Openers Jon Stephenson and Darren Robinson were both undone by an inspired opening spell from Martin Bicknell.

However, the batsmen found things easier going at the other end as Graeme Napier and Flower turned things around for their side.

Napier in particular looked to be positive, belting 41 from just 36 balls out of partnership of 69 with Flower for the third wicket.

That still left Flower with a lot to do however, Napier's momentum was maintained in partnerships of 46 with skipper Ronnie Irani and 62 with Aftab Habib for the fourth and fifth wickets.

Stabilising effort

Flower looked set to make his ton and lead his team to the win but he fell to Alex Tudor with just four runs needed.

Earlier, Essex skipper Ronnie Irani took four wickets but half-centuries from in-form opener Mark Butcher and Mark Ramprakash stabilised their side.

Butcher and Alec Stewart put on 61 for the first wicket before the veteran wicket-keeper edged Jon Dakin to Irani in the slips for 20 but wickets fell at regular intervals from that point.

Ramprakash replaced Stewart and stayed until the end, increasingly aware of his need to stick around and marshall his team-mates.

A conservative approach may have brought just five boundaries but he still managed to garner 70 from 91 deliveries.

Only two other batsmen reached double figures, Azhar Mahmood contributing 19 to a partnership worth 35, and Ian Salisbury making 16 in a ninth-wicket stand of 26.

Butcher was spinner Paul Grayson's only reward, with a return catch, in a 10-over quota that yielded just 30 runs.

Irani's second spell brought the scalps of Alistair Brown and Nadeem Shahid and he returned at the death to account for Salisbury and Ed Giddins.

Essex: J P Stephenson, J M Dakin, G R Napier, A Flower (Wkt) R C Irani (Capt), A Habib, A P Grayson, D D J Robinson J D Middlebrook, A P Cowan, A J Clarke.

Surrey: M A Butcher (Capt), A J Stewart (Wkt), M R Ramprakash N Shahid, A D Brown, I J Ward, Azhar Mahmood, A J Tudor M P Bicknell, I D K Salisbury, E S H Giddins.

Umpires: N Cowley and A G T Whitehead