Middlesex head coach Stuart Law was really pleased to see his side get their Royal London One-Day Cup campaign off to a winning start at Essex on Friday.
Dawid Malan fell five runs short of a century as the visitors piled up 366-8 in the Good Friday sunshine at Chelmsford, while George Scott (63 off 30) and Nick Gubbins (56 of 57) added half-centuries.
And after Essex reached 256-3 in 38 overs, Toby Roland-Jones struck twice in the space of six balls dismiss Varun Chopra (127) and Ravi Bopara and put Middlesex back on top.
Nathan Sowter mopped up with a 6-62 haul and Law said: “It was a tough game of cricket but congratulations to the ground staff here it was a fantastic cricket pitch, it was a beautiful outfield and short fast boundaries.
“I think the scores indicate just how good the wicket was and how good the talent on show was. To get the win was great and it was a tremendous fight from our boys playing their first game in this format under a new regime.
“We sat down and pinpointed a few areas that needed working on and we went out there and did really well so I am really pleased.
“We had told the boys in the last couple of days how we wanted to play and I was very vocal in stressing my views. As you can see the boys gave me a perfect response.”
Middlesex host Gloucestershire at Lord’s in their next match on Sunday (11am).
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