Surrey's form in one-day cricket is nothing to write home about these days, but when Middlesex named a line-up lacking the names of their latest England recruits, Joyce and Dalrymple, the visitors must have felt they had a chance of scoring a confidence-boosting win. In the field the Brown Caps acquitted themselves well, however it is best not to dwell on how they went about chasing what appeared to be an attainable 258-run target.

On a sweltering day the visitors wilted to 43 for four in the twelfth over before being dismissed for 149. Ben Scott followed up his highest ever one-day score by taking a brilliant catch in front of first slip to account for Scott Newman. Three overs later Jonathan Batty slapped Johann Louw to short extra cover, where Hutton was responsible for a spectacular left-handed effort, then, next ball, the stand-in Surrey skipper Rikki Clarke ran himself out attempting an optimistic single to Eoin Morgan at mid-on. To make matters even worse, Scott Styris then trapped Richard Clinton, playing back, leg before.

Alistair Brown was joined by Stewart Walters and the fifth wicket pair appeared to be turning things round when Walters was snared down the leg-side by Scott, who was up to the stumps. The writing was on the wall when, in the space of two overs, Rory Hamilton-Brown was adjudged leg before and Tim Murtagh was run out attempting to keep Brown on strike. The in form Brown eventually ran out of partners to finish with an unbeaten 57 off 59 balls, which included three consecutive fours off Chad Keegan; the second of which took him to his half-century.

The Crusaders' total was built around two fifty partnerships involving Owais Shah, who top scored with 76 from 100 deliveries. Shah enjoyed an alliance worth 77 runs in 16 overs for the third wicket with Nick Compton and an 84-run stand, also in sixteen overs, for the sixth wicket when he joined forces with Scott, who made 73 not out at precisely a run a ball.

After winning the toss and electing to bat the hosts lost Ed Smith in the second over, playing across the line to Neil Saker. Eight overs later, Hutton edged the same bowler on to the top of his off stump. However, with Compton taking a straight six and a reverse swept four off Nayan Doshi's first over and Shah driving and cutting the seamers with his customary authority, the hosts soon grew in confidence.

Doshi came back well, his second and third overs being maidens, and when the runs started to dry up at the other end Compton perished in his attempt to force the slow left-armer off the back foot. That Middlesex failed to post an even bigger total was due to Styris being run out by a direct hit from Walters at point before he had even faced a ball. With Morgan lofting a catch to mid-off in the 29th over, the hosts had lost three wickets for eight runs in the space of seventeen balls. But thanks to Scott's forays with Shah and then the tail, the home side ensured they used up all of their allotted overs.

Afterwards, the Surrey coach Alan Butcher made no excuses for his side's poor showing with the bat. He said: "Nobody has made any excuses as far as the pitch was concerned, because nobody got in really, that was half the battle. It's disappointing because with an inexperienced bowling attack I thought we did really well. I thought we looked a good unit in the field, and I still felt, even though we were lacking a bit of experience, that we had enough batting looking down the list to be competitive against that total. It was disappointing that no-one was able to support Alistair Brown, because with fifteen overs still to go, only six an over required and Browney at the wicket fifty not out you would fancy yourself to win under normal circumstances.

On the fielding and bowling side there were a lot of plusses. Nayan Doshi being one because he's taken a bit of stick in the one-day games he's played this year, and hasn't really got the pace of his bowling right. Today I felt he was back to pretty much his best. Neil Saker and Jade Dernbach both bowled really well, as did Tim Murtagh with the new ball. Even Stewart Walters came on and did a good job for us. So, all-round I couldn't have been happier with that, but there are always two sides to the game and the second bit we didn't do very well."

Butcher said he was surprised that Shah has been overlooked for England's forthcoming one-day series against Sri Lanka, but felt that Scott was the man of the match for Middlesex. He said: "Ben Scott played an excellent innings and then took two fantastic catches, especially the one to get Stewart Walters. Looking at that one on Cricstat, with a lot of keepers in the country that would have been four. I've always thought Ben was one of the best keepers in the country, if not the best to be honest, so he'd be my man of the match today."

Asked whether there was any truth in the rumour that Surrey would be signing a second overseas player for the Twenty20 Cup, Butcher said: "That's news to me. It's something that Mark (Butcher) and I have spoken about, but we feel it would be a bit of a backward step. It's not likely because I think that, by that stage, Azhar Mahmood will be fit. With twenty-over games every other day, I think we'll be able to get him through those, and I think we've got enough cricketers to still be competitive. Seeing how one or two of the younger bowlers performed today, that gives me even greater hope that we'll have a decent unit on the park come the Twenty20."

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