After losing at home to Ealing on Saturday, the Park Road club bounced back in style on Sunday

North Middlesex captain Joel Hughes praised the batting efforts of Evan Flowers after he scored 131 not out on Sunday to help his team defeat Shepherds Bush and reach the semi-finals of the Middlesex knock-out cup.

Flowers and James Parslow put on 181 for the fifth wicket with the latter reaching three figures as well and ending unbeaten on 107.

It helped North Middlesex score 362-5 from their 45 overs and Bush had no answer in reply and the game ended when they were reduced to 155-9 with their last man unable to bat due to a broken finger.

After losing to Ealing in the Middlesex County League Premier Division a day earlier, where Flowers had produced a patient 60 off 129 balls, Hughes was pleased to see his squad respond in a positive fashion.

He said: “It was nice to bounce back on Sunday, but I did feel a little bit sorry for Shepherds Bush.

“They were weak anyway and then their wicket-keeper broke a finger in the 10th or 11th over and the umpire wouldn’t let one of our players field for them, so they had to go with 10 and it was carnage.

“Evan did great and is such a gutsy character. He has been struggling with his hand of late, but to score nearly 200 runs across the weekend, with one of his knocks against one of the best teams around in Ealing, was incredible.”

Izhan Khan also impressed with the ball for North Middlesex on Sunday as he picked up 5-14 from his nine overs.

The knock-out cup win helped make up for a disappointing result a day earlier at home to Ealing.

North Middlesex declared on 264-8 from 64 overs with Flowers hitting 60 and Will Vanderspar adding 61 down the order with good support from Tom Nicoll, who ended with 59 not out from 42 balls.

Ealing made a strong start to their chase and although North Middlesex fought back, reducing them from 103-1 to 240-7, the visitors got home in the 57th over.

Nicoll claimed 3-71 off 13.2 overs, but it wasn’t enough. Hughes added: “I didn’t quite know when to declare. I was going to declare sooner, but felt like the wicket was getting better.

“I thought around 240 would prove to be a difficult total to chase, but the wicket seemed to be getting better so we stayed out there a bit longer.

“Unfortunately we didn’t bowl very well and particularly with the new ball and they got off to a flyer.

“We could just never get them below the run rate which made it tough to put pressure on them and it was too little, too late in the end.”