Leg-spinner Nathan Sowter is seeking to play his part in a rare Twenty20 double for Middlesex this season.

Sowter was a member of the second XI side that defeated Somerset at Arundel to become national T20 champions for the second year running earlier this month.

Now the 23-year-old wants to repeat that achievement with Middlesex’s first team – having helped them to qualify for the knockout stage of the NatWest T20 Blast for the first time since they won the trophy in 2008.

The Lord’s side are already guaranteed a place in the last eight and wins in their two remaining group matches, against Essex and Gloucestershire, would secure a home quarter-final tie.

“We’ve got a good system in terms of how we play in the 2s,” said Sowter. “The best thing at Arundel was that we had eight players who had been involved the year before as well.

“I think having that core’s a good thing for Middlesex moving forward and hopefully we can keep it going in the first XI as well. The plan is to take it one game at a time.

“Any chance you get to play finals cricket, in whatever type of cricket you play, is a great opportunity and to do it for Middlesex would be special. Hopefully we can go all the way – that’s what we’ll be aiming to do.

“This is a great opportunity we have after so many lean seasons to give something back to the members here, and it’s also for ourselves. We don’t like playing poor T20 cricket – we want to win.”

Sowter, who grew up in New South Wales, broke into Middlesex’s T20 side last season – finishing with the remarkable figures of 2-2 from just four balls against Kent.

With Ravi Patel ruled out through injury, the young leg-spinner has begun to feature regularly in the competition this year, making nine appearances to date.

In several of those, Sowter has played as Middlesex’s sole specialist spin bowler – although he admits he would enjoy the opportunity to forge a partnership with Ollie Rayner.

“I haven’t really played much T20 cricket with another spinner, although we do that quite a lot in the second team,” added Sowter. “It works well if you’re playing on wickets that are doing just enough.

“I’m sure it’ll play its part at some point in this campaign and it’d be good to bowl in tandem with Ollie, the senior spinner at the club. He’s played a lot of cricket and knows what he’s doing.

“This season I got a similar lucky break to last year, with Ravi getting an unfortunate injury. I just took the opportunity and I’m happy with the way they’ve been coming out.

“All of a sudden you’re a key part of the team – you feel like you belong and hopefully I can keep playing regular first-team cricket, and help Middlesex to win matches.”

Middlesex take on Essex at Lord’s on Thursday, starting at 6.15pm, before travelling to Bristol to face Gloucestershire in their final group match 24 hours later.