DAVID Leatherdale steered Worcestershire Royals to the top of the Norwich Union League Division Two table with a match-winning display in yesterday's five-wicket triumph over Middlesex Crusaders at New Road.

The County all-rounder took 2-9 and then cracked an unbeaten 55 after his side had been left a modest victory target of 129.

He received valuable support from Andy Bichel in a 50-run stand in 16 overs which went a long way towards enabling skipper Graeme Hick's men to secure victory with 7.2 overs to spare.

It was their sixth league win of the campaign and puts them in good heart for Wednesday's floodlit clash at Old Trafford against Lancashire Lightning.

Leatherdale said: "It wasn't the easiest of wickets. It was not as slow as the one we played against Herefordshire in mid-week, but the bowlers all had to bowl well.

"We're playing well as a team right now and everyone is contributing."

Worcestershire, however, did not have it all their own way when they began their victory chase and at one stage started to wobble, particularly when paceman Angus Fraser removed Anurag Singh, Philip Weston and Vikram Solanki for just 13 runs.

With Hick out to Chad Keegan, the County were reduced to 4-49, but any fears of a more worrying decline were swept aside by Leatherdale and Bichel.

The Australian paceman eventually departed to Keegan for a crucial 23 to leave Leatherdale and Steve Rhodes to complete the job.

Earlier, Middlesex, after winning the toss, made a disastrous start by crumbling to 7-3 and then 22-4. Their dramatic slide, however, was checked by Mike Roseberry and David Nash who put on 55 in 13 overs.

It helped lift the Crusaders to a hard-earned 128 all out in 43.1 overs.

Bichel had put stunned Middlesex under pressure right from the start by ripping out Andrew Strauss and Owais Shah inside the opening five overs.