Essex youngster Charlie Allison admitted it was great to play his part with bat and ball after a thrilling three-run win over Middlesex in the Metro Bank One Day Cup.

Allison, 18, scored his maiden half-century for the club and hit three sixes in his 70, while also sharing a notable stand with captain Tom Westley (80, who had rebuilt the innings with Luc Benkenstein after Essex slipped to 56-3.

That helped the home side post a challenging 298-9, but Middlesex appeared to be cruising at 236-3 after captain Mark Stoneman's 93.

Essex kept plugging away, though, and wickets fell as the tension grew, before Allison produced a superb piece of fielding in the deep to run out Ethan Bamber with seven balls left.

“It was a great game for me in what is only the fourth match of my List A career. The score a half-century and then execute the run out which won us the match was pretty surreal to be honest," said Allison.

“There was quite a lot of work to do when I started my innings and batting with Tommy (Westley) was quite cool, I’d never batted with him before.

“We tried to rebuild the innings and tried to set ourselves up for a big end which we did well. He didn’t really give me too much advice apart from telling me to keep playing strong shots and keep ticking over and we just kept re-assessing the situation every three overs or so.

“Once we got our partnership going, there was no need to play with any risks. When Tommy was eventually out, Will Buttleman and I just thought we can really push the accelerator now. So we did.”

Regarding the run out that completed the victory for Essex, he added: “I didn’t actually realise that I’d run him out. I just picked the ball up and threw it in as hard as I could. Next thing I looked and saw the umpire had put his finger up and that was probably the best moment.

“I was right on the boundary and didn’t think I was going to get there and save the shot so I just dived full length for the ball. It’s certainly a game that I won’t forget.”

Stoneman could hardly believe his side had thrown away their chance of a first victory in this year's competition, after Essex broke their duck at the fourth time of asking.

“I’m still trying to work out how we lost that," said the left-hander.

"Chasing that score on that surface, it you said we needed 100 off the last 20 with eight wickets in hand we’d be snapping your hand off. We should have done it at a canter and we’ve butchered it really in all honesty. 

“That’s unfortunate because it felt like for the majority of the game we’d done some good stuff. They probably got 60 more than they should have, but that’s part of the game. To be five down for 121 and get the score that they did you’ve got to give them some credit.

"We got a few things wrong ourselves, but like I say needing 100 with 20 overs to go and eight wickets in hand we should be winning that pretty comfortably and that’s pretty frustrating.

“We knew it was going to be tricky but we tried to put Essex under some pressure. They had to turn to Harmer, their key bowler, pretty early in the powerplay and that used some of his overs up and the plan was that that would work for us at the back-end and we hit the wining runs. But it wasn’t to be. Their guys managed to strangle us a bit and pick up wickets.

"The hardest runs are the winning runs. We just needed someone to be there at the end to score them. Every time it looked as if we had that person we lost them. It should have been myself, or Daveo, Higgo, Simmo. There were a lot of good players there to get that game won. We just let it slip through our hands."

As for the finish, when Bamber edged Beau Webster fine and tried to come back for a second only to be beaten by Allison's throw, he added: “It looked like four when it left the bat and then it’s a tie. But it just sums it up the way that it went, it was a brilliant piece of fielding and a good throw for the run-out. It was just frustrating for the lads.

“Everyone is beating everyone in this competition it seems. We’ve just got to correct those mistakes and not let teams back in. We’re doing some good stuff and just as we’re getting the upper hand we’re letting other teams back in. We’ll come again Sunday and try and put it right.”