Surrey gained revenge for their thrashing a fortnight ago when they beat Essex by eight wickets with 22 balls to spare at Chelmsford in the Friends Provident Trophy in a match reduced to 40 overs per side after rain had delayed the start until 1.45 p.m.

Having been out into bat, Essex were bowled out for 215 but the visitors cruised to their target after their openers, James Benning and Scott Newman had got the innings off to a whirlwind start.

They put on 58 in just seven overs before being parted having taken 22 from the first two overs sent down by Graham Napier who saw his first legitimate of the innings carved away over deep mid-on by Benning following a wide.

Benning hit 38 from 22 balls that included three sixes and three other boundaries before he was bowled by David Masters attempting to drive.

Newman, though continued, unphased taking the total into three figures by hoisting James Middlebrook over the ropes at deep mid-wicket shortly before reaching his own half-century.

However with his score on 52 from 48 balls, he attempted to cut the off-spinner and was caught behind to leave the Brown Caps on 110 for two.

But any hopes that their opponents may have harboured of renewed interest in the match were quickly extinguished by Mark Butcher and Usman Afzaal.

The pair eased their side to victory with an unbroken 109 runs third wicket stand as neither offered any encouragement to the home attack regularly rotated by Mark Pettini who had been forced to make five bowling changes in the opening 15 overs in an unsuccessful attempt to limit the onslaught of runs.

Butcher and Afzaal dominated the seven bowlers, calmly but effectively moving towards the victory target with Butcher finishing on 66 while Afzaal was 50 not out when the winning runs were struck.

Varun Chopra provided the highlights in the Essex innings striking nine boundaries in his 79 at a run-a-ball with a plethora of sweetly-timed cover drives the feature of his attacking play.

He figured in the two highest partnerships of the innings, firstly with Ryan ten Doeschate who contributed 19 runs in a fourth wicket stand worth 47 runs before he was run out after being sent back to the non-striker's end.

However it was Chopra's stand with Foster that proved most rewarding as 60 runs were added in eight overs for the fifth wicket.

Chopra and Foster judged the pace of the ball to good effect working the ball around the field to take the total onto 152 before Chopra clubbed a ball form Benning to long-on where Matt Nicholson took the catch.

Middlebrook joined the Essex wicket-keeper to maintain the momentum with 25 runs gathered from four overs before Foster, on 32, picked out Matt Spriegel at backward point.

Now 177 for six with nine overs remaining, the home side rather lost their way with only 38 runs added.

Middlebrook hit 26 before he was caught in the deep whilst Napier (4) and Chris Wright (0) fell in successive overs and although Masters scored 21 that included three boundaries, the final total of 215 all out was rather less than anticipated as the tempo slowed with the visitors attack finding late restraint.

The early Essex casualties were Jason Gallian for 13, Ravi Bopara for six and the luckless Pettini who was caught behind to the third ball of the innings without a run on the board.

The Essex skipper has endured a poor recent sequence in the competition having scored 1, 1 and now 0 in his last three innings in contrast to his two centuries in the first three matches.

One of those was at The Oval just two weeks ago when he scored 144 while Gallian struck 117 in an opening stand of 269 but it was altogether a different story this time around.

Essex now need a point from their remaining two matches - away to Sussex on Monday and then at Lord's against Middlesex on Wednesday - to guarantee a place in the knockout stages.