A BREATHTAKING century by Scott Styris moved the Essex Eagles one step closer to qualification in the Friends Provident T20 after securing victory against the Surrey Lions at Chelmsford on Friday.

The kiwi all-rounder scored an unbeaten 106 of just 50 balls, smashing eight sixes and six fours along the way, to help his team chase down a competitive total of 187-6 set by the Lions.

The Surrey innings got off to a fantastic start with opening batsmen and wicket keeper Steven Davies scoring 89 of 50 deliveries, supported well by Mark Ramprakash (35) and Jason Roy (29), leaving the Eagles facing a challenging run-rate of 9.35 runs per over if they were to secure the two points.

Essex quickly fell behind the rate, and struggled to stay in contention but the rearguard of Styris, well supported by Tim Phillips (30), dragged the home side within touching distance of securing a win, as they were left needing 25 of the last two overs.

After scoring just three off the 19th over, Man-of-the-match Styris thought they had made it 'hard for themselves'.

He told the Gazette: "I actually thought we had blown it a little bit. We had enough balls to score off the last over and we didn't take full advantage the over before, and I thought with 25 off two we probably had done enough but you know we made it hard for ourselves but thankfully we got ourselves out of jail by the way we played in the end."

The New Zealand international hit a six to secure victory on the penultimate ball of the match to claim his debut T20 ton, helping Essex leapfrog the Lions into second place in the FP T20 South Group table with two games in hand.

He described the exhilarating feeling of smashing the winning runs to drag his team over the winning line against the odds.

He said: "It's up there anytime you win a game, no matter what level. From club cricket to internationals if you are there at the end and you hit a few boundaries, I guess, and you get your side over the line then they are all special and that is my first hundred in T20 so of course it has got to be up there.

"It was a lot of fun anything you are there at the end and hitting the winning runs it is awesome. I had a game last summer against Australia when I managed to do they same thing and both of those are equally amazing and a great feeling when you are in the middle."