ESSEX bounced back from a miserable loss to neighbours Kent with an eight-run win against Middlesex at Chelmsford – keeping their chances of making the Friends Life T20 quarter-finals alive.

Graham Napier was the star of the show, hitting a rapid 23 off 14 balls, including three sixes in one over, to help Essex to a below par 139.

Although only faced with that modest total, Middlesex finished on 131 for eight – and that included a bonus of six runs when Essex were penalised for not completing their overs in the permitted time.

Napier finishing with two wickets off four overs for just 21 runs.

Ryan McLaren was the only visiting player to score over 20. He struck an unbeaten 35 from 30 deliveries, but not before he received three lives.

He survived a sharp caught and bowled chance to Ryan ten Doeschate, before he was put down twice in an over by David Masters on the fine-leg boundary – both off the bowling of Napier.

Napier, ten Doeschate and Tim Southee were the most successful Essex bowlers with two wickets each.

The home side’s total owed much to the efforts of Napier and Ten Doeschate.

Essex reached the end of the 15th over in disarray at 76 for seven but boosted that by 63 in the final five.

That surge was spearheaded by Napier, who struck three sixes in an over against spinner Tom Smith before falling leg before wicket to McLaren for 23 in the next over.

Ten Doeschate went on to make 28 from 20 balls before paceman Steven Crook had him caught in the deep.

In contrast, Ravi Bopara again struggled to find his touch. He needed 10 deliveries to get off the mark and his innings of 14 spanned 28 balls and included just one boundary. He was finally put out of his misery when Smith had him caught behind.

Smith, Crook and McLaren each picked up a couple of wickets while Crook also ran out Owais Shah, playing against his former county, for a duck with a direct throw from short fine leg.

The scarcity of runs would suggest that the bowling was of the highest quality and a pitch contained demons. But nearer the truth was the fact that batsmen on both sides were victims of their own downfall with a series of unsightly strokes on a good pitch.

Essex will need to play much better in their next two games against pace-setters Somerset and Hampshire.