MIDDLESEX'S hopes of moving to the top of the AXA League table were spoilt by Malachy Loye's dashing undefeated 108 at Wantage Road yesterday.

Loye's innings helped Northamptonshire pull off an unexpected win with almost four overs to spare.

Northamptonshire had this season beaten only one other county in one-day cricket but Loye's power of stroke on a sluggish pitch took them storming to victory, his hundred arriving in only 112 balls.

Loye's prolific championship form filtered through to the one-day charts, because he became the No 1 batsman in the league yesterday, climbing above Darren Robinson, of Essex, on runs aggregate.

The one blip in his innings yesterday arrived when he had reached 67. He swung Keith Dutch's off-spin head high to deep midwicket and through the hands of Jason Pooley, who signalled that he had been blinded by the low sun.

In this dull-weather summer Pooley had probably forgotten how shiny the orb could be at times.

Justin Langer took on the Middlesex captaincy, as though to underline that he had recovered from his blow to the head while batting on Saturday, and he responded to the honour by scoring 87 not out. This time the headache stemmed from Loye's brilliance.

Langer's innings contained no boundaries until he had passed the fifty mark, but the Australian rotated the strike well, and his side would almost certainly have hit severe trouble without him.

Loye, by contrast, blasted five boundaries on the way to a 69-ball fifty, and the opening stand of 82 in 19 overs with Russell Warren represented Northamptonshire's best start in all cricket.

Afterwards, Kevin Curran simply carried on the good work.

Franklyn Rose, who had struck Langer on his batting helmet - or 'crusted' him, as the expression has it - caused early problems, and the way in which the West Indian dynamited Paul Weekes's middle stump first ball served to suggest that Northamptonshire meant business.