T20 Blast: Middlesex beat Glamorgan by seven wickets

Stephen Eskinazi continued his impressive form with an unbeaten 91

Stephen Eskinazi hit a fine unbeaten 91 to steer Middlesex to a seven-wicket win over Glamorgan as they reached their target of 171 with 2.4 overs to spare.

He faced just 56 deliveries, hitting 15 fours and a six.

Daryl Mitchell slammed 32 off 13 balls to remove any doubt about the result.

Earlier, maiden T20 fifties from Dan Douthwaite and James Weighell dragged Glamorgan to a total of 170-8 after a poor start.

Middlesex still need to win their remaining six T20 Blast games to qualify while Glamorgan are also almost out of contention with five games left.

Ahead of the game Glamorgan were hit by a positive Covid-19 test for Nick Selman, which also ruled out Australian duo Marnus Labuschagne and Michael Neser.

Billy Root and Roman Walker came into a reshaped line-up, but their batting struggled badly with only David Lloyd (29) getting going in the top order.

Afghan spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman put the pressure on as he conceded just 23 runs after claiming the wicket of Glamorgan's remaining overseas player, Colin Ingram, in the first over.

The seamers all chipped in as Glamorgan stumbled to 76-6 in the 12th over before Douthwaite and Weighell launched their rescue act, taking a few overs to accelerate before launching a series of huge blows.

Douthwaite's 53 came off 31 balls and Weighell's 51 off only 26 before both holed out in the last over off Mitchell.

Eskinazi, who had hit 102 not out and 64 in his previous two knocks, batted through the home innings, dominating stands of 55 with Joe Cracknell (13) and 68 with Nick Gubbins (24).

Mitchell's blast was the only reason Eskinazi ran out of time for a century, and although he provided with his second wicket, John Simpson hit his first ball for six to finish the match.

Middlesex batsman Steve Eskinazi told BBC Radio London:

"The most important thing is points on the board, so that's definitely the most special knock of the last week, I'm very proud of the effort.

"As a side and personally we've been through some pretty difficult times over the past 12 months, I've worked and we've worked really hard for performances like today.

"We spoke about playing like a team that's won five or six in a row, and massive credit to Daryl Mitchell who's a winner, he comes in and takes the game on, a great person for our young guys to learn from.

"We know we ought to start better with bat and ball, and Mujeeb was fantastic with the ball."

Glamorgan all-rounder Dan Douthwaite told BBC Sport Wales:

"We (Douthwaite and Weighell) came into a tough situation initially with 140 to 150 the target, so to get to 170, we were really happy at the half-way stage.

"We thought 170 was a good score but we didn't nail it with the ball, and to be fair to Eskinazi and the rest, they batted really nicely on that deck so it's a tough one to take.

"It's always going to be a big miss when you miss someone like Marnus, and Sellers (Nick Selman) playing the role he has at the top has been really good for us.

"It wasn't going to be easy without two of our most successful batsmen though we were happy with 170.

"It's easier said than done, we need to win every game, we'll give it our all home and away."