Surrey 240 for 4 (Roy 65, Philippe 61, Pope 59) beat Essex 233 for 8 (Walter 78, Topley 3-28, Lawrence 3-28) by seven runs

Jason Roy, Josh Philippe and Ollie Pope all smashed rapid fifties as Surrey out-gunned Essex to cement their second-place spot in the Vitality Blast men’s competition South Group.

The batting trio hammered 65, 61 and 59 respectively as Surrey piled on 240 runs – their fourth-highest T20 total ever.

Paul Walter crashed a 30-ball 78 to give Essex a glimmer of a successful chase, but Reece Topley and Dan Lawrence proved the outliers in the run-frenzy with both claiming three for 28.

Surrey’s third win in a row gave them daylight in second place – with Essex and Kent Spitfires four points below them.

The fourth largest score at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, would prove enough…but for eight overs, it didn’t look like it.

A back-foot push and a clip through mid on were inauspicious for Walter before he set ablaze in a cloud of boundaries.

He faced 30 balls and 16 of them fizzed to or over the boundary, with his strike-rate always around the 300 mark – it was a truly breathtaking display which momentarily threatened the break the record for the fastest Blast ton.

Despite the loss of Pepper to Topley, 95 runs came off the first six overs. But four wickets in 17 balls in the middle overs turned the tide decisively back to the visitors.

They were shared equally between former Essex duo Lawrence and Topley – who now has 16 wickets this season – as the hosts turned to uncontrolled slogging rather than the controlled aggression that had given them a motoring start.

The home side couldn’t kick themselves back into gear, with Tom Lawes picking up two wickets, as they fell seven runs short – despite Shane Snater and Zum Akhter clubbing 59 in 21 balls for the ninth wicket.

Earlier, Simon Harmer invited Surrey to bat first, and a run-fest ensued.

Roy was the lead aggressor as he clinically and brutally pinged the ball to the boundary at will to give the visitors a flier – 75 wicketless runs coming in the powerplay.

With Laurie Evans, 98 was put on for the first wicket inside nine overs, and he personally brought up his 40th T20 fifty for Surrey.

But Matt Critchley forced a re-start after his first over went for just three runs and then his following two overs picked up Evans and Roy’s wickets – both caught by keeper Michael Pepper, one skied one a thin edge.

Surrey came again, and this time even more triumphantly.

Josh Phillippe and, once he got in, Ollie Pope almost dared each other to hit the ball harder and to different parts of Chelmsford.

Pope might have only struck one six, but his 10 fours displayed his true sumptuous quality in a 26 ball 57, while Phillippe grabbed back-to-back half-centuries to end up with 61 red off 30 balls. The pair put on 102 runs for the third wicket.

Pope and Tom Curran falling towards the end couldn’t prevent an incredible 87 runs off the last five overs – which took Surrey to 240 for four.