There are worse positions in Twenty20 games at which to come in to bat than with your side 21 for four in the fifth over, but few can have turned the match so strongly from that point as Dawid Malan did last night. The Roehampton-born, South Africa-bred Middlesex batsman seized the game by the scruff of the neck with a breathtaking hundred.

François du Plessis, who had held a one-handed diving catch at gully to bring Malan to the crease, was hit into the crowd three times in one over. Malan also hit three sixes in Simon Marshall's final over, which cost 28 in total, as Middlesex finished with a competitive total of 176.

Malan's 103 was, by 18 runs, the highest score made by a Middlesex batsman in Twenty20 cricket and came off 54 balls. The only bowler he struggled to dispatch was Andrew Flintoff, who showed the extra pace that England are lacking, reaching a peak of 92.3mph. Flintoff eventually dismissed Malan, cutting hard to point, and bowled Shaun Udal next ball to finish with three for 17.

Lancashire's hopes rested with Flintoff's batting after they had lost their first three wickets for 14 runs. He struck sixes over long-on off the first two balls he faced from Udal and rattled to 50 off 32 balls, surviving a missed stumping by Ben Scott off Malan's leg spin, but when the evening's hero caught Flintoff at deep square leg off Steven Finn for 53, Middlesex were heading for their first finals day at the Rose Bowl on July 26.

This was not the first “home” game that Middlesex had played at the Oval (Lord's is being prepared for the Test match). In 1939, they hosted a County Championship match there against Nottinghamshire while Lord's staged what was then seen as the far more important Eton v Harrow fixture.

Surrey confirmed yesterday that they have made an official approach to sign Ed Joyce, who is out of contract with Middlesex at the end of the season.

Scoreboard

Middlesex
B A Godleman c Flintoff b Cork 1
O A Shah c Cork b Chapple 0
*E C Joyce c Cross b Cork 8
E J G Morgan b Croft 33
B J M Scott c Du Plessis b Flintoff 1
D J Malan c Law b Flintoff 103
T Henderson not out 21
S D Udal b Flintoff 0
T J Murtagh not out 1
Extras (lb 5, w 3) 8

Total (7 wkts, 20 overs) 176

M Kartik and S T Finn did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-2, 3-18, 4-21, 5-101, 6-175, 7-175.

Bowling: Chapple 3-0-22-1; Cork 3-1-24-2; Flintoff 4-0-17-3; Mahmood 4-0-33-0; Marshall 4-0-53-0; Du Plessis 1-0-20-0; Croft 1-0-2-1.

Lancashire
L Vincent lbw b Murtagh 1
G D Cross lbw b Finn 0
*S G Law c Udal b Murtagh 11
A Flintoff c Malan b Finn 53
F du Plessis c Finn b Kartik 18
S J Croft c Murtagh b Kartik 16
K W Hogg not out 24
G Chapple c Shah b Murtagh 22
D G Cork b Henderson 7
S J Marshall not out 1
Extras (b 2, lb 7, nb 2) 11

Total (8 wkts, 20 overs) 164

S I Mahmood did not bat.

Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-3, 3-14, 4-68, 5-97, 6-117, 7-148, 8-162.

Bowling: Finn 4-0-28-2; T J Murtagh 4-0-35-3; Henderson 4-0-28-1; Kartik 4-0-28-2; Udal 3-0-33-0; Malan 1-0-3-0.

Umpires: B Dudleston and R K Illingworth.

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