Middlesex lost the London derby at The Oval after a fine performance with bat and ball from England prospect Zafar Ansari.
Batting first, Surrey posted a competitive 173-7 in front of a crowd of 21,466 that owed much to Ansari’s enterprising 34 not out off 25 balls.
He then claimed 2-16 with his slow left-arm spin as Middlesex subsided to 144 all out.
Aside from Ravi Rampaul’s 3-21, spin proved to be the king on a sticky pitch, freshened by a heavy early evening shower that delayed the start time by 40 minutes.
Middlesex’s Ollie Rayner – who has claimed 21 wickets in his last two visits to The Oval – continued his love affair with the ground by taking 3-23, while Surrey’s Gareth Batty finished with 2-25, including the vital wicket of England one-day skipper Eoin Morgan, who made just three.
Jason Roy handed Surrey an excellent start by hitting a quick-fire 35 as Surrey reached 57-1 at the end of the powerplay.
The introduction of Rayner brought the wicket of Steven Davies, while three balls later, Rory Burns was run out without facing.
Rayner struck again by having Kumar Sangakkara stumped for 27, though not before the Sri Lankan had gone past 5,000 T20 career runs.
After another couple of wickets, Surrey had work to do at 102-6 but a stand of 46 in four overs between Tom Curran and Ansari boosted their total.
Middlesex, in reply, lost wickets at regular intervals. Brendon McCullum announced himself by launching Ravi Rampaul for six, but the West Indian exacted his revenge two overs later, bowling him with a cleverly disguised slower ball.
Dawid Malan (11), Nick Gubbins (10) and John Simpson (11) all got out cheaply, and not even James Franklin’s spirited 39 off 30 balls could rescue the visitors.
This post was last modified on 17/06/2016