Middlesex end long wait with One-Day Cup final win over Leicestershire
Middlesex beat Leicestershire by 31 runs to win the Metro Bank Men's One-Day Cup final at Trent Bridge on 20 September 2026. Middlesex made 231 in 49.5 overs before bowling Leicestershire out for 200 in 44.2 overs, according to the final scorecard BBC Sport. In this format each team faces up to 50 overs, six balls per over, so Middlesex lasted almost the distance.
Leicestershire captain Stephen Eskinazi won the toss and chose to bowl. The call looked perfect. Middlesex crashed to 71-5 in the 22nd over, with the top order gone and the final drifting away.
Then came the rescue. Ryan Higgins made 100 from 115 balls, striking nine fours, and Harry Duke added 55 beside him. The pair put on 135 for the sixth wicket, the stand between the sixth pair of batters to walk out, and turned a collapse into a total.
Ian Holland led the Leicestershire attack with 5-36, his second-best figures in List-A cricket, the official term for senior one-day matches. Rehan Ahmed supported him with 3-55. Middlesex were eventually all out with one ball of their 50 overs unused.
Leicestershire's reply wobbled badly at the start. They slipped to 67-4 in pursuit of 232. Nick Kelly held one end with 103 from 103 balls, timing his century to keep the chase alive.
Support never arrived. Toby Roland-Jones took 3-27 for Middlesex and Tom Helm took 3-32, striking whenever a partnership threatened. As the required scoring rate climbed, Leicestershire ran out of batters with more than five overs still to bowl.
The hundred was Higgins' first in List-A cricket. He paced it well. He rebuilt first, then pushed on once Middlesex had something to defend.
For Middlesex, the win ends a long wait. Their previous trophy was the County Championship in 2016. They had not lifted a white-ball trophy since winning the T20 Blast in 2008, when the short 20-over game was still young.
Leicestershire had topped Group A with five wins from eight matches, while Middlesex lost only one of their eight games in Group B and edged past Durham to reach the final. Leicestershire came to Nottingham with the chance of a second One-Day Cup title in four seasons, but could not finish the job.
What makes this stand out is the symmetry. Both sides had a centurion. Both sides lost early wickets in clumps. The difference was Duke's 55, the one other score of weight on a day when two fine hundreds might otherwise have cancelled each other out.
