Sharks set for Somerset shootout after flying start to Blast campaign

Tymal Mills’ side have won both their opening south group games – but so have Somerset.

With Sussex keen to get back to Edgbaston’s Finals Day for the third time in five years and make up for their semi-final flop last year, Friday night’s shootout should be a thriller.

The Sharks won their first match – against Middlexex at Lord’s – by 16 runs after piling up 202-4 then restricting the hosts to 186-7.

Then at home to Gloucestershire on Sunday – on a day when Sussex Women opened proceedings with a win of their own in a double-header – they skittled the visitors for 93 after totalling 173 all out in their 20 overs.

James Coles was the batting hero at Lord’s with 77 off 44 balls, while Tom Alsop’s 58 off 35 was top score against holders Gloucestershire.

Coles said at Lord’s: “I thought I was struggling a little bit – I was going at a run a ball for quite a while, but I said to the lads as they were coming out it was one of those pitches where you probably needed to give yourself a chance.

“There was a bit of extra bounce, the slow ones were holding a fraction and then it’s just finding your moments where you can try and shift a bit of momentum, which sometimes doesn’t come off and sometimes it does. Here it came off.

“On paper it did get close towards the end, Higgo played really well but luckily we were tight enough through the middle. It’s just about staying calm and I’d like to think it was inevitable we would win.

“Tymal Mills and Ollie Robinson have both done it for so long now, you have so much trust that they know what they’re doing – as Robbo showed at the end. I could just tell he was going to get it done and that’s really reassuring.”

After Alsop’s knock helped the Sharks win on Sunday, he said: “It was a good performance. We used the momentum from Lord’s. We were going to bat before we lost the toss. We didn’t get off to the best of starts. And we felt we may have been a few short.

“But that almost helped our bowers. We knew we had to be barve with the ball and execute, and that’s what we did. Both me and James [Coles] thought it was a good pitch but a few of the others thought there was a bit in it. But the bowlers did an outstanding job.”

Sussex host Somerset on Friday night and Glamorgan – in another doulbe header with the women – on Sunday. Tickets via sussexcricket.co.uk