Jon Dakin struck twice late in the day as Essex inched ahead in their top-of-the-table clash with Middlesex at Chelmsford.

Middelsex were left reeling at 21-3 in their second innings, a slim lead of 38 with seven wickets remaining, after Dakin removed Sven Koenig and James Dalrymple.

The all-rounder had earlier helped finish off Middlesex's first innings on 295 as the last three wickets fell for just 12 runs.

Aftab Habib and Ronnie Irani then put on 69 valuable runs to hold Essex's reply together.

Simon Cook removed the first four Essex batsmen, including Andy Flower for 91 runs.

But Habib struck six boundaries in his 65 during his partnership with Irani (43), before the Middlesex spin duo of Phil Tufnell and Paul Weekes finished Essex off.

Ben Hutton took the catch to remove Irani off the bowling of Weekes, and the off-spinner took a return catch to dismiss Paul Grayson before claiming the wicket of Dakin.

James Middlebrook and Graham Napier put on 54 runs down the order, but both fell to Tufnell as Essex were dismissed for 278, a deficit of 17 runs.

Irani trapped Hutton lbw for a duck, but Dakin had the last word as Essex finished on top.

Essex: D D J Robinson, W I Jefferson, J P Stephenson, A Flower (Wkt), A Habib, R C Irani (Capt), A P Grayson, J M Dakin, J D Middlebrook, G R Napier, J B Grant.

Middlesex: S G Koenig, B L Hutton, J W M Dalrymple, O A Shah (Capt), E C Joyce, P N Weekes, D C Nash (Wkt), A A Noffke, S J Cook, C B Keegan, P C R Tufnell.

Umpires: J H Evans and J W Lloyds