Middlesex confirmed their dominance of the South division with their eighth victory in ten games, a performance once again based on their mean bowling attack. Surrey have been poor and they slipped to their eighth defeat as Middlesex chased down a meagre 139 with nine balls remaining. Surrey finished second from bottom in their Friends Provident group and are bottom of the Championship as well as propping up the South division after this result. At least they have excelled in crowd size and this was their second 23,000 sell-out of the season.

No side have scored more than 165 against Middlesex this season, but their batting is flaky and they will greatly strengthened if Owais Shah is back for the quarter-finals.

Having confirmed victory of the division in the previous round, Middlesex rested their key bowlers, Dirk Nannes, who has a hip injury, and Murali Kartik, the India spinner.

Mark Ramprakash, the Surrey captain, won his ninth toss and batted for the sixth time, but the Surrey innings was the usual article of wretchedness that has stymied their campaign. They were 38 for four in the seventh over when Abdul Razzaq was caught and bowled by David Burton, the seam bowler.

Usman Afzaal and Jonathan Batty rebuilt slowly but it was only 27 off the seventeenth over, from Dawid Malan's occasional leg breaks, that got Surrey to anything defendable.

Eoin Morgan and Ben Scott got a bit stuck at 85 for three after 13 overs, but Morgan finished it in style with a six picked up over deep square-leg.

Surrey v Middlesex

Surrey

S A Newman b T J Murtagh 8
*M R Ramprakash c T J Murtagh b Finn 8
U Afzaal b Malan 37
C P Murtagh run out 0
Abdul Razzaq c and b Burton 6
J N Batty not out 42
C P Schofield b Henderson 16
J J Roy c and b Henderson 4
M N W Spriegel b Henderson 12

Extras (lb 2, w 4) 6

Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 139

J Ormond and J W Dernbach did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-30, 3-31, 4-38, 5-86, 6-119, 7-123, 8-139.

Bowling: T J Murtagh 4-0-24-1; Finn 3-0-12-1; Henderson 4-0-22-3; Burton 3-0-21-1; Udal 4-0-29-0; Malan 2-0-29-1.

Middlesex

B A Godleman c Afzaal b Razzaq 12
D M Housego lbw b Afzaal 18
T Henderson c C P Murtagh b Schofield 26
B J M Scott not out 31
E J G Morgan not out 36

Extras (b 4, lb 6, w 2, nb 5) 17

Total (3 wkts, 18.3 overs) 140

*E C Joyce, D J Malan, S D Udal, T J Murtagh, D A Burton and S T Finn did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-29, 2-60, 3-70.

Bowling: Dernbach 2.3-0-19-0; Ormond 4-0-23-0; Razzaq 3-0-20-1; Schofield 4-0-36-1; Afzaal 4-0-24-1; Spriegel 1-0-8-0.

Umpires: A A Jones and R T Robinson.