Owais Shah starred with bat and ball to help ease nervy Middlesex to a deserved 27-run Pro40 win over Division Two strugglers Leicestershire on a tricky pitch at Lord's.

Shah cracked a typically-stylish 43 in the home total of 201 for seven and then returned career-best, one-day bowling figures of four for 11 in the space of 20 balls to help dismiss the visitors for 174 and inflict their second defeat in three games.

In pursuit of a victory target of 202, winless Leicestershire made a dismal start when on-loan James Benning (4) drove hard at the sixth ball of the innings from Tyron Henderson to be well caught at slip by Eoin Morgan.

Number three Joshua Cobb (16) appeared late on a full-length ball from Gareth Berg that re-arranged the furniture, then David Burton nipped one back off the seam to bowl opener Matthew Boyce (23) through the gate.

But it was skipper Shaun Udal's decision to turn to spin at both ends that finally swung the balance the way of Middlesex as the Foxes lost their last six wickets for 35 runs in the space of eight overs.

Boeta Dippenaar (19) was snared leg-before on the back foot by the home captain then, two balls after posting a composed 65-ball 50 with four fours, top-scorer James Taylor advanced to Shah's occasional wrist spin to york himself.

Tom New rushed down the pitch at Shah to present his Middlesex counterpart Ben Scott with a stumping, then leg-spinner Dawid Malan coaxed Wayne White to miscue to mid-on.

Jigar Naik (12) dragged his back foot when attempting to sweep at Shah allowing Scott to whip off the bails again and Shah wrapped up the win with 16 balls to spare by pegging back the off stump of last man Harry Gurney (0).

Played out on the same dry pitch used for Middlesex's four-day clash with Essex that concluded on Friday evening, this was never likely to be a run-fest as the surface offered early assistance for the new ball bowlers and later when the spinners found turn.

Indeed, none of the Panthers top-order went on to play a commanding, match-winning innings despite six of them making it into double figures, two of whom reached the 40s.

Dawid Malan (4) pushed at one going across him from Wayne White to edge low to Dippenaar at slip and bring together Nick Compton (46) and Shah for a classy second-wicket stand worth 91 in 18 overs before both played a part in their own demise.

At the mid-point of the innings top-scorer Compton played around a straight one to go leg-before then, five overs later, Shah's sliced drive picked out the only boundary fielder sweeping at deep cover.

After that Middlesex's order fell away lamely as a succession of batsmen struggled to find their timing. All-rounder Berg (2) appeared to play on, Eoin Morgan (22) drove meekly to deep mid-off and John Simpson (12) holed out to deep-mid wicket in front of the Mound Stand.

With overs running out fast it was left to former Kent duo Neil Dexter (24) and Henderson (23 not out) to help save face by taking the hosts past 200 in the very last of their 40-over allocation.