Date-stamped : 01 May97 - 06:16 Essex just fail to lose after final fumbles By Christopher Martin-Jenkins at Lord`s Essex (227-9) bt Middlesex (226-8) by 1 wkt WHAT is it about Lord`s and one-day cricket? Out of a genuinely deep blue sky and an apparently comfortable cruise to victory against Middlesex yesterday, Essex contrived to win only with a desperate, scrambled second run to deep mid-off from the final ball of the match. Had they lost, Essex would with some reason have been accused of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory. The truth is, however, that Middlesex`s two off-spinners, Paul Weekes and Keith Dutch, stifled them for runs with exemplary slow bowling from the Nursery End after Angus Fraser had bowled with his usual accuracy and a mixture of keen fielding and panic-stricken running between the wickets conjured up a crisis. It had not quite reached that stage when the last over began with only four runs needed, provided Essex, who then had three wickets in hand, did not lose another one. Robert Rollins and Mark Ilott were run out, however, off the first and fifth balls, the latter by Dutch after a smart piece of fielding off his own bowling, so Ashley Cowan, who had come in at No 10, was required to score at least two from the last ball. He struck it hard to another 21-year-old, Ian Blanchett. A slight slip, a little fumble, a throw not quite straight at the stumps and the diving Cowan made his ground a split second before Dutch removed the bails. After losing to the Irish and coming so near but yet so far yesterday, Middlesex will be wondering what lies round the next bend. They have not beaten another first-class county in the Benson and Hedges or the NatWest for two seasons now and there were only two periods during a day of unremitting sunshine when Essex were not comfortably in control. The first, after fine spells of new-ball bowling by Cowan and, in particular Ilott, was during a brief period when Mark Ramprakash and Mike Gatting were together, but in the space of four overs, both were lbw trying to play a spinner wide of mid- on. Ramprakash hit three clean sixes and many other handsome strokes over an outfield as glossy as a thoroughbred`s back and Jason Pooley added 50 well-struck runs off 43 balls. A score of 226 for eight, however, looked too few as Graham Gooch, Stuart Law and Ronnie Irani took Essex to a point where only 52 were needed from 15 overs before Law hit across the line against James Hewitt and the decline, imperceptible at first, set in. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)