CLYDESDALE BANK 40 GROUP B, Chelmsford:
Essex 193-3 (32.3 ovs) beat Middlesex 189-7 (40 ovs) by seven wickets
Match scorecard

Grant Flower faced 77 balls for his unbeaten 81, hitting eight fours

Essex took a huge step towards the semi-finals of the Clydesdale Bank 40 with a seven-wicket win over Middlesex at Chelmsford.

After winning the toss, Middlesex were restricted to 189-7, despite an unbeaten 48 from captain Neil Dexter.

A third-wicket stand of 114 between Grant Flower (81 no) and Ravi Bopara (68) helped Essex home inside 34 overs.

Essex will be guaranteed a place in the last four if they manage to beat Yorkshire at Headingley on Sunday.

Yorkshire have already qualified as Group B winners, but victory would see Essex claim the one semi-final spot available to the best runner-up.

The win was a fitting way for Flower, who hit the winning runs, to say farewell to Chelmsford.

The 39-year-old is returning to his native Zimbabwe at the end of the season to take up a coaching role.

It looked as though Flower would be accompanied to the finish by Bopara, but he holed out to a diving Steven Finn off the bowling of Toby Roland-Jones.

Finn had earlier bowled accurately to claim the wickets of Mark Pettini and England colleague Alastair Cook, who was caught in the deep on leg side for just 11.

Essex batsman Grant Flower told BBC Essex : "It's great and I couldn't have asked for more. It's a great team effort and thankfully I got a few runs also.

"It was a great wicket to play on, everyone contributed and I had a decent game as well. Hopefully we can get to Lord's in this final.

"They (Essex) will be going down a division (in the County Championship) but I'm sure the guys are good enough to come back up."

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