FRIENDS PROVIDENT TROPHY, GROUP B, Lord's
Middlesex 278-6 beat Warwickshire 276-7 by four wickets (Middx 2pts, Warwicks 0pts)

Neil Dexter hit just four boundaries in his watchful 69 not out off 90 balls

Neil Dexter was Middlesex's matchwinner at Lord's as he helped his side to an FP Trophy win over Warwickshire with just three balls to spare.

Chasing a Bears total of 276-7 built on Jonathan Trott's 120, the hosts looked in a spot of bother after two wickets in successive balls left them 125-4.

But Owais Shah (63) helped Dexter (69no) build a recovery.

And, helped by fellow South African Gareth Berg (26) and Ben Scott (28no), Dexter struck around to seal victory.

Middlesex have now finished their games in Group B, which has already been won by Somerset.

But they will only join Somerset in the quarter-finals if, in the final group games on Wednesday, Kent beat Warwickshire at Edgbaston and fail to overcome Middlesex's currently superior run rate.

With home advantage against Kent, making the last eight is still very much in the Bears' own hands.

And, after playing the innings of the day, followed by the catch of a lifetime, Trott must be frustrated that his team have not already closed the door on Middlesex and Kent.

Trott came within one ball of carrying his bat throughout the 50 overs with an excellent 120 off 142 deliveries, before chipping a catch to deep long-off from the final ball of the innings.

He hit only 10 boundaries but it was an intelligent innings on a pitch which offered some assistance to the seamers, particularly after a period of light drizzle which umpires Neil Mallender and John Steele elected to play through.

WEDNESDAY'S GROUP B FIXTURES Scotland v Somerset (The Grange, 1045 BST) Warwickshire v Kent (Edgbaston, 1045 BST) FP Trophy quarter-final qualifiers so far . . . Lancashire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Sussex

The early fireworks came from Trott's opening partner and fellow South African Neil Carter.

The always dynamic left-hander blazed away in customary fashion against the team to whom he was loaned out for last autumn's ill-fated Stanford Series, reaching a 29-ball 50.

After he had miscued to mid-on on 68, with the Bears on 88-1, he had hit more than three quarters of the visitors' score.

Middlesex then tightened things up as discarded England trio Ian Bell (13 off 32 balls), Jim Troughton and Tim Ambrose all came and went cheaply.

But Bears skipper Ian Westwood helped add Trott a useful 56 in nine overs for the fifth wicket.

Needing to score at 5.6 runs an over from the beginning of their pursuit, Middlesex lost Billy Godleman, bowled around his legs by Carter.

But Phillip Hughes, playing his final game before joining Australia's pre-Ashes training camp, then blasted 57 in 43 balls - including 11 fours, the majority to the short Mound Stand boundary.

Shah appeared in the mood to steer Middlesex home in cantering to a 40-ball 50. But, when he holed out to wide long-off to toss away his own wicket 19 overs from the end, on 162-5, with the run rate now more than six an over, it appeared as though Middlesex were heading out.

When Trott plucked a diving catch out of the air to account for Berg, Middlesex's hopes of reaching the last eight again appeared over.

Bur Dexter and Scott - who had scored only 37 in his six previous innings - joined forces to see their team across the line.

Warwickshire director of cricket Ashley Giles:

"We got stuck down a bit in the middle overs.

"We didn't quite go through the gears maybe as we should have at times and lost wickets in key areas.

"I think there were three partnerships of 20 in the middle of the innings.

"We start partnerships and then we have to rebuild again."

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