Middlesex have ditched their pink Twenty20 strip in favour of navy blue for the NatWest Pro40, which was just as well yesterday as pink would have clashed horribly with the red faces in the dressing-room after the home side collapsed from a position of strength.

Chasing 260 to beat Leicestershire, Middlesex were 133 without loss as the twentieth over drew to a close. Ed Smith had hit successive balls from Claude Henderson for four, six and one, but the left-arm spinner then got Ed Joyce, on 69, to chop the ball on to his stumps.

After that, the Middlesex order folded before the slow bowlers like an origami artist on steroids. Smith was bowled by Henderson for 75 and Eoin Morgan caught in the deep off the same bowler. Jeremy Snape then tempted Jamie Dalrymple and Owais Shah into the sort of rash strokes you normally only see from England batsmen on national duty. The former was stumped, charging, while the latter played on.

Geoff Miller, the England selector, was there to watch Stuart Broad, with an eye to the one-day internationals later this summer, but although the Leicestershire fast bowler took two wickets in two balls when the match was already won, his supporters must hope that Miller had lingered over the tea trolley and missed the start of the Middlesex reply. Joyce approached Broad’s opening over like a hungry lion. The first ball he drove to the boundary; the third he pulled with the same result; the fourth he cut all along the ground for four more and the sixth was driven back over the rope.

Joyce and Smith nurdled ten runs off the next four overs before tucking in again. David Masters’s four overs went for 38 and Jim Allenby was removed from the attack after his first over went for nine.

Allenby had done better with the bat. Coming in at No 4 despite only one fifty in 21 limited-overs matches, he doubled his tally with an aggressive innings after playing a supporting role to Hylton Ackerman, caught behind for 83.

Allenby’s fifty came off 54 balls when he pulled Murali Kartik into the Grand Stand, then three balls later he found the same spot. He finished not out on 91 off 77 balls and Middlesex were left ruing the back strain that had kept out Chaminda Vaas, their Sri Lanka left-armer.

Scoreboard

Leicestershire
H D Ackerman c Scott b Keegan 83
P W Harrison c Keegan b Kartik 14
J L Sadler st Scott b Kartik 12
J Allenby not out 91
†P A Nixon run out 39
Extras (b 1, lb 8, w 5, nb 6) 20
Total (4 wkts, 40 overs) 259
*J N Snape, Mansoor Amjad, S C J Broad, C W Henderson, D D Masters and G J P Kruger did not bat.
Fall of wickets: 1-64, 2-91, 3-148, 4-259.
Bowling: Murtagh 8-1-45-0; Keegan 8-0-50-1; Richardson 8-0-49-0; Kartik 7-0-37-2; Finn 5-0-41-0; Dalrymple 4-0-28-0.

Middlesex
E C Joyce b Henderson 69
*E T Smith b Henderson 75
O A Shah b Snape 30
E J G Morgan c Sadler b Henderson 5
J W M Dalrymple st Nixon b Snape 7
†B J M Scott c Nixon b Broad 17
T J Murtagh c Masters b Broad 9
C B Keegan c Harrison b Kruger 0
M Kartik c Nixon b Kruger 7
S T Finn b Broad 2
A Richardson not out 2
Extras (lb 3, w 2, nb 4) 9
Total (40 overs) 232
Fall of wickets: 1-133, 2-158, 3-166, 4-180, 5-191, 6-219, 7-219, 8-219, 9-224.
Bowling: Broad 8-0-48-3; Kruger 8-0-40-2; Masters 4-0-38-0; Allenby 1-0-9-0; Henderson 8-0-34-3; Snape 8-0-34-2; Amjad 3-0-26-0.

Umpires: V A Holder and R K Illingworth.