Surrey, the first winners of the Twenty20 Cup in 2003, are as good as out of this year's competition after an abysmal batting collapse that saw them lose their last eight wickets for 41 and crash to their fifth defeat in six games in the South Division.

A capacity crowd of 6,500 was not complaining because a third successive victory had enhanced Essex's chances of qualifying for the quarter-finals, but it was a pitiful exhibition from a proud county that appears to be in some disarray.

They were going well enough when Alistair Brown and Mark Ramprakash were together in a second-wicket stand of 34, but once Ramprakash fell leg-before to Graham Napier and Brown swatted Danish Kaneria to long-off, the middle order simply gave way. Abdul Razzaq skyed his second ball from Kaneria, who was to concede only five runs in his three overs, to mid-wicket, Usman Afzaal pulled Maurice Chambers to deep square leg and Jonathan Batty chipped Ryan ten Doeschate to short mid-wicket.

At that stage, Surrey had lost four wickets for five runs inside four overs and it did not get much better. Chambers picked up a second wicket when he shattered Chris Schofield's stumps and there were still 19 balls remaining when Ten Doeschate put them out of their misery.

He bowled Chris Jordan, Jade Dernbach and Saqlain Mushtaq in rapid succession to finish with figures of four for 24 and leave Surrey contemplating their lowest total in Twenty20 cricket.

Essex had not started all that well themselves after they had been put in. They struggled to 74 for four in 14 overs against some tight Surrey bowling, but then James Foster and Ten Doeschate gave them the acceleration they needed with a fifth-wicket stand of 64 in five overs.

Foster had struck 41 off 23 balls with three sixes and a four when Saqlain had him caught by Ramprakash, back-pedalling at extra cover, and Ten Doeschate was even quicker with 35 off 16 balls, including three sixes and two fours, before he drove Razzaq to Scott Newman at long-off.

They then lost three wickets in successive balls in the last over but their total of 164 for nine was far too many for Surrey.

Scoreboard

Essex
*M L Pettini c Brown b Dernbach 15
J E R Gallian c Dernbach b Razzaq 23
G R Napier st Batty b Schofield 17
G W Flower b Jordan 11
†J S Foster c Ramprakash b Saqlain 41
R N ten Doeschate c Newman b Razzaq 35
N J Dexter b Saqlain 5
J D Middlebrook run out 13
D D Masters c Jordan b Saqlain 0
Danish Kaneria not out 0
M A Chambers not out 0
Extras (lb 4) 4

Total (9 wkts, 20 overs) 164

Fall of wickets: 1-24, 2-51, 3-56, 4-74, 5-138, 6-145, 7-162, 8-162, 9-163.

Bowling: Dernbach 4-0-28-1; Collins 3-0-15-0; Saqlain 4-0-40-3; Razzaq 4-0-35-2; Schofield 3-0-19-1; Jordan 2-0-23-1.

Surrey
S A Newman lbw b Napier 0
A D Brown c Napier b Kaneria 22
*M R Ramprakash lbw b Napier 18
U Afzaal c Flower b Chambers 6
Abdul Razzaq c Pettini b Kaneria 0
†J N Batty c Gallian b Ten Doeschate 2
C P Schofield b Chambers 3
C J Jordan b Ten Doeschate 7
Saqlain Mushtaq b Ten Doeschate 14
J W Dernbach b Ten Doeschate 9
P T Collins not out 1
Extras (b 5, lb 3, w 2, nb 2) 12

Total (17 overs) 94

Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-34, 3-53, 4-54, 5-55, 6-58, 7-63, 8-71, 9-93.

Bowling: Napier 3-0-18-2; Masters 2-1-10-0; Chambers 4-0-24-2; Kaneria 3-0-5-2; Ten Doeschate 4-0-24-4; Middlebrook 1-0-5-0.

Umpires: J H Evans and R K Illingworth.