Middlesex end 36-year wait for List A glory as Duke and Higgins star

Duke and Higgins deliver at last

It can feel unfair, but it is also inevitable that players parachute into XIs for the domestic one-day finals. Harry Duke and Ryan Higgins were playing for Middlesex in the One-Day Cup for the first time this season. Duke, who has joined on loan to address a wicketkeeping crisis, has been a revelation since joining from Yorkshire. And Higgins is just Middlesex, isn't he? They proved key figures, their stand of 135 rescuing the Londoners from 71/5, September mornings no easier for batting than they were when the Gillette Cup final was a major sports event, live on the BBC.

Higgins got his ton, revealing both a John McEnroe headband and a barnet of McEnroe curls to give Middlesex something to bowl at. Leicestershire, enjoying vocal support, set off in pursuit of a gettable 232 in much more benign batting conditions, a two out of three chance. That's the kind of chase that has people saying that if someone can make a century, surely that'll be enough. Well, Nick Kelly did ton up, but nobody got near Duke's valuable 55 in a supporting role, Rishi Patel the nearest with 16. That 39-run difference accounted for the 32 runs between the teams when Middlesex's 36-year wait for a List A trophy finally expired. In a tight match with nothing between the sides, Kelly's was the key wicket. And the catch was taken by … Higgins. Who else?