One-Day Cup: Alex Hales & James Taylor earn Notts record win

Hales first century came against Sussex when made 116 at Horsham

England hopefuls Alex Hales and James Taylor each hit a One-Day Cup century to steer Nottinghamshire to a record-breaking win over Middlesex.

Rain reduced Notts' innings to 45 overs and Hales made 141 before Taylor hit the final ball for six to reach 100 not out and take the visitors to 368-2.

It was the best List A total at Lord's, beating Hampshire's 353-8 in 2005.

Further rain cut the Middlesex target to 158 off 16 overs but Harry Gurney took 4-16 to bowl them out for just 80.

With the World Cup exactly six months away, Hales seemed intent to press home his claims of deserving a starting place and despite only making 15 off his first 20 balls, the right-handed batsman reached his half-century off 43 deliveries and required just a further 30 to convert it into his second century in the competition.

Hales has scored more than 2,700 runs in 78 one day innings at an average of 35.67 and an incredible strike-rate of 99.77

The 25-year-old dispatched Harry Podmore for four to bring up Notts' 200 off just 162 balls and shared a county one-day record opening stand of 217 with Michael Lumb (81) before eventually holing out to Neil Dexter at cover off David Malan, with Hales having hit a century of his runs in boundaries.

Following Lumb's departure, Samit Patel (37 not out) and Taylor added 122 runs in the remaining 8.3 over, with the latter reaching his ton off just 55 balls.

Taylor's maximum off the final ball saw him match the joint-highest number of sixes in an innings in the tournament, with seven, alongside Leicestershire's Niall O'Brien.

A monumental downpour just five balls into Middlesex's reply delayed play for 90 minutes and the hosts lost a wicket immediately after the restart as Luke Fletcher (1-7) had Stirling caught by Riki Wessels at slip.

Gurney, who will also harbour hopes of retaining his place in the England one-day set-up, then bowled Malan and Ryan Higgins to reduce Middlesex to 8-3.

Eoin Morgan (19), John Simpson (15) and James Harris (10) were the only batsmen to make double figures for Middlesex as their woes in the white ball format of the game continued.

Gurney dismissed both Simpson and Harris to earn his second hat-trick ball of the evening but Ajmal Shahzad had Ravi Patel caught to for a duck to end Middlesex's innings and deny his fellow bowler the chance to claim his treble.

Victory moved Nottinghamshire up to fourth place with nine points and they face second-placed Warwickshire in their final Group B match at Trent Bridge next Wednesday aiming to secure a quarter-final spot, while the loss means Middlesex can no longer qualify for the next stage.