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Middlesex Crusaders (4 pts) bt Nottinghamshire Outlaws by 62 runs.

The Middlesex faithful have never been avid lovers of the one-day game and nor do they seem that impressed by fancy new soubriquets, free hits and shirt numbers.

Only a few hundred showed up at Lord's yesterday and they might justifiably have questioned the rationale behind having shirt numbers if there is no way of telling, from either the matchday programme or the official scorecard, who is actually lurking under the coloured clothing.

At least, though, they had the satisfaction of witnessing the first uninterrupted match of the new CGU National League and a comfortable victory for the 'Middlesex Crusaders' in this Division Two game.

For this, they had reason to be grateful to Mike Roseberry and Justin Langer, who scored fluent half-centuries after Mark Ramprakash had elected to bat on a true pitch, and a typically miserly bowling performance from the man wearing No 10. That was Angus Fraser, by the way.

Roseberry was playing his first one-day innings since returning from his four-year sojourn at Durham, where he had a pretty thin time of things last year with a highest one-day score of 28.

He soon passed that minor milestone but not before receiving the first free hit of the day after Paul Franks had overstepped in the sixth over. Roseberry gleefully clubbed that to the wide mid-on boundary and then had the dubious distinction of becoming the first player to be ``dismissed'' from a free hit when he skied Alex Wharf to Richard Stemp at mid-on five overs later. A cantered single was the result.

As pleasingly as Roseberry batted, it was Langer who caught the eye once again as he continued his rich vein of form. Whatever type of cricket he plays, and wherever he plays it, he cannot help but score runs. The pace of the pitch undoubtedly suited him yesterday and his 71, which included three sixes and two fours, came from just 76 balls.

The pair put on 131 in 24 overs before Roseberry obligingly flat-batted a full toss down square leg's throat and Langer followed two overs later when he carved Vasbert Drakes straight to backward point.

At 160 for one after 30 overs, Middlesex might reasonably have expected to score between 270 and 280. As it was, the rest of the innings rather fell away and they were grateful to a feckless bowling display from a Nottinghamshire side adorned in their Sherwood Forest green. To bowl 16 wides and eight no-balls was criminal and they certainly lived up to their outlaws name in that respect.

Their batting was no better, either. After Fraser's opening 7-3-13-2, they were well behind the clock and a defiant half-century from Paul Johnson, together with some lusty blows from Drakes, were scarcely a consolation.