England captain Eoin Morgan and South Africa great AB De Villiers both played starring roles as Middlesex beat Surrey by 64 runs in the T20 Blast.
There were 11 current or former England players in action at Lord’s, but it was World Cup-winning skipper Morgan who stole the show with 70 from 37 balls.
He put on 115 with De Villiers (64) as Middlesex set Surrey 211 for victory.
Aaron Finch (47) got the visitors off to a quick start but Steven Finn’s fiery 5-16 limited them to 146 all out.
Fast bowler Finn, who has not played for England in any format since 2017, looked back to his rapid best and finished with career-best figures in T20 cricket.
He very nearly took a sixth wicket – and what would have been a third in four balls – during his final over but was unable to hold on to a difficult caught-and-bowled chance off Gareth Batty.
Surrey had looked well placed to take the contest to the wire midway through their chase, reaching 117-2 in the 12th over, but once Finn removed Sam Curran for 39 they quickly subsided.
Experienced duo Morgan and De Villiers earlier entertained the crowd with some powerful hitting to help Middlesex recover from a shaky start, which included losing captain Dawid Malan to the third ball of the match.
Ex-South Africa batsman De Villiers’ 64 came off 40 deliveries, while Morgan – who broke the record for the number of sixes in an innings during the World Cup – bludgeoned five maximums to take his side towards an imposing total.
“We seem to be gathering a bit of momentum in every format,” said Finn. “Since the One-Day Cup we’ve started getting ourselves in positions to really force games.
“We’re very fortunate to have AB de Villiers and Eoin Morgan here to put a score like that on the board and that makes the bowlers’ job a lot easier.”
Middlesex have now won five of their opening seven T20 Blast games, while Surrey suffered their fifth defeat and already look out of contention to reach the quarter-finals.
