Hughes and Ward lead Sussex Sharks to Blast quarter-final clash with Lancashire

Sussex Sharks (161-1, 16.2 overs) win by 9 wickets against Middlesex (159-9, 20 overs)

On a sold-out night at Hove, Sussex were back to their best with both bat and ball, with wickets shared around all five of their bowlers before memorable innings from Daniel Hughes (96 not out) and Harrison Ward (56) demolished a target of 160.

It was admittedly fortunate that Somerset, Sussex’s conquerers the previous night, fell to defeat against Glamorgan to miss out on a home quarter-final themselves, but the Sharks will feel their serene performance earned them that break.

There was little to fault as Ollie Robinson (3-27) picked up his best figures of the 2024 Blast, James Coles and Jack Carson bowled superbly in tandem and Hughes equalled his career-best T20 score.

For Middlesex, it was just unfortunate that after a dismal campaign, they were in the way of a juggernaut determined to prove its class.

The London side had done their research in advance, and knew a team who benefited from the leadership of two of their former wicket-keepers – Paul Farbrace and John Simpson – like the back of their hand. They were simply not good enough to lay a glove on Sussex, however.

Given that the winner of every single toss at Hove this campaign has decided to field, it was no surprise that returning Middlesex skipper Stevie Eskinazi opted to do the same.

Eskinazi and his stand-in for the past five matches, Leus du Plooy, opened the batting for the Seaxes, and offered years of franchise experience and high quality between them.

In what has been a miserable Blast campaign for Middlesex, however, the London side brought back all the bad memories by again going down in stages.

Du Plooy was the first victim, charging at Robinson in the sixth ball of the innings and finding Daniel Hughes at cover.

Eskinazi did not last much longer, falling at the end of the third over to Robinson when he was pinned LBW.

From the other end, Brad Currie – on his first Hove appearance of 2024 and sporting the same bleach-blonde haircut that Robinson had at the start of the year – was determined to make his mark, potentially forcing his way into Paul Farbrace’s knockout stage plans.

It was notable that the Scotsman kept his place while fellow left-armer Nathan McAndrew was dropped on the eve of his return to Australia, suggesting that swap would remain in place once Currie has completed his own duties in the Scottish Super 10 competition in August.

If this was an audition, though, Currie certainly impressed his assessors.

In the fourth over, he secured Max Holden’s dismissal courtesy of the most incredible acrobatic catch from Danny Lamb, who clung on superbly at point.

Middlesex were in deep trouble at 22-3 after just 3.1 overs, but their form batsman of the Blast – Martin Andersson – and wicket-keeper Jack Davies at least responded resolutely.

They had an early stroke of luck when Davies, facing his first ball, was put down by Lamb and the Sussex man injured his shoulder in the process, being forced off the field afterwards.

After motoring on past the powerplay, the introduction of spin complicated the innings.

Andersson fell for an underwhelming 16 from 14 balls when caught by Tom Clark at backward square leg, before Ryan Higgins got down on one knee and departed from almost exactly the same delivery from James Coles, finding the hands of Clark.

It soon seemed that Clark had magnetic abilities, as he was picked out yet again with the next dismissal.

Davies – after scorching two huge sixes over both sides of the square – fell before really hammering home his intent, holing out for 52 when he found Sussex’s star fielder at deep square leg.

While Josh De Caires was pinned LBW by Jack Carson for his two runs and Blake Cullen was bowled by Robinson for five, Luke Hollman did at least provide a positive end to the innings with 28 off 24 balls.

When it was Sussex’s turn to respond, however, Middlesex’s target immediately shrank in stature.

Ward and Hughes carried with them a swagger that told the bowlers that it was worthless even turning up as they would just blast the ball away at will, and they rattled to personal milestones without sweat.

This started in the first over against talented 19-year-old Noah Cornwell, who while a certain star of the future, could do nothing to halt the Sussex men.

Many came and went; speed demon Blake Cullen, tricky spinner – and Michael Atherton’s son – Josh de Caires, rangy paceman Ethan Brookes, leading wicket-taker Luke Hollman and star all-rounder Ryan Higgins.

Yet none could even make the task look difficult, as the openers pierced the infield during the powerplay with heft, grit and a pinch of fortune, and then found the gaps in a spread field afterwards.

It was their play outside the powerplay that really impressed, in a position Ward and Hughes had rarely found themselves in all campaign, when they played with beautiful timing and judgement to leave good balls and punish anything with too much width.

Hughes reached his 50 from just 30 balls and with it passed 500 runs in the Blast this season, while with Ward also motoring, the pair rocketed up the list of Sussex’s best-ever T20 partnerships.

By the time Ward secured his 50 off 36 balls, the Anglo-Australian partnership was already the seventh-best Sussex had ever compiled.

They then overtook greats – Brendon McCullum and Murray Goodwin versus Hampshire in 2010 – and exceeded John Simpson and Tom Alsop’s 139 for the fifth wicket at Kent just last week.

Luke Wright and Matt Machan could eventually rest easy that their record of 159 for the first wicket against Essex in 2014 would not fall, however, as Ward picked out Blake Cullen on the leg-side boundary with the score at 141.

Hughes, however, still had history to make.

With a smattering of fours and two majestic sixes – the first a monstrous clip over the hospitality suites and the second a bosh down the ground to win the match – the Australian equalled his career best of 96.

He also passed Sam Hain to become the highest run-scorer of the entire Group Stage of the 2024 Blast with 560 runs, ending this stage of the campaign with a real highlight.

Having wrapped up second place, Sussex were shortly afterwards confirmed to face Lancashire Lightning in their Quarter-Final at Hove; a tie which will take place on Wednesday, September 4.

With the One-Day Cup up next, Sussex have much work to be doing before they can think of T20 glory, but they will remember this night at Hove with glee. For Hughes and the rest, it was a standout occasion in a brilliant Blast.

REACTION

Sussex coach Paul Farbrace said: "It was an outstanding performance. My one disappointment in this campaign so far is that when we've had a full house at Hove we haven't played as well as we can so to do that tonight and get a home quarter-final was fantastic. Apart from one dropped catch I thought we were excellent, it was almost a perfect performance. After losing and playing so poorly at Taunton on Thursday I was a bit worried that we'd taken our foot off the gas and settled just for qualifying for the quarter-finals. We've just told the players now that we're one of eight teams left who genuinely could win the competition. We have played really good cricket and it would have been a bit of a waste to finish with three losses so I'm really pleased for the players and the performance they produced tonight which has given us the added bonus of a home quarter-final."