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Middlesex 231 (Higgins 100, Duke 55, Holland 5-36) beat Leicestershire 200 (Kelly 105, Roland-Jones 3-27, Helm 3-32, Sharma 3-37) by 31 runs
Ryan Higgins made a superb maiden List A hundred from 115 balls with Harry Duke (55) backing him up as their 135-run sixth-wicket partnership steered Middlesex from 71 for five to 231 all out after Foxes all-rounder Ian Holland took five for 36 and wicketkeeper Ben Cox held five catches. Higgins and Duke were making their first appearances for Middlesex in this year’s competition.
Against a background of turmoil off the field, the win is a first for Middlesex in a List A final since they beat Derbyshire to lift the 1990 Refuge Assurance Cup.
Leicestershire, still reeling from the points deduction in the Rothesay County Championship that makes relegation almost certain, had hoped to ease the pain winning a second Metro Bank trophy in the space of four seasons but it was not to be.
Put in, Middlesex were 32 for three in the 11th over and five down in the 22nd – all snared by the immaculate Cox.
Nathan Fernandes slashed at one from Holland, who dismissed Max Holden in similar fashion. Tom Scriven found a thin edge to remove skipper Ben Geddes for a duck.
But Duke – on loan from Yorkshire as cover for the injured Joe Cracknell – provided the support Higgins needed before a top-edge to extra cover brought his undoing, Helm was leg before to Rehan and Higgins perished one ball after going to his maiden List A hundred, failing to clear long-on, looking for a 10th boundary.
The Leicestershire innings almost exactly mirrored that of Middlesex as they slipped to 32 for three and 79 for five.
Sharma dismissed Foxes captain and former Middlesex batter Stephen Eskinazi caught at second slip and Hamza Shaikh leg before, veteran Roland-Jones having Rishi Patel caught at deep square leg.
Roland-Jones claimed two more victims in Ahmed, leg before, and Cox, caught behind.
Leicestershire found themselves needing someone to step up as Higgins had and Kelly answered the call. Allowing few scoring opportunities to pass him by, he reached 50 from 52 balls with six fours and a pick-up for six off Sharma as he and Holland added 50 for the sixth wicket.
Ben Green’s departure added more pressure, with 57 still needed. Kelly, who twice hammered Zafar down the ground for more sixes, kept the Foxes in the hunt, reaching 100 from 103 balls.
But, after needing treatment for cramp, he pulled Helm straight to deep square. Ajaz Patel fell to a stunning catch at backward point by Zafar off Helm, before Scriven was the last man to go, caught at mid-off.
