Spitfires downed as Sussex Sharks return to best Vitality Blast form at Hove

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Sussex Sharks ensured their fine start to the Vitality T20 Blast campaign continued as they beat neighbours Kent Spitfires by 31 runs thanks to a brilliant all-round performance.

Putting the scars of their 54-run defeat to Surrey the previous Saturday very much behind them, Sussex began with intent thanks to Harrison Ward’s 61 and Danny Lamb’s 40 and posted a huge 201-7 that never looked like being chased down.

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Kent gave it a valiant go, with opener Daniel Bell-Drummond and captain Sam Billings combining for a stubborn 93-run third-wicket partnership, but with the quality of Ollie Robinson (1-12), Tymal Mills (1-35) and Nathan McAndrew (2-24) showing, the final margin was decisive.

Ultimately, the result backed up the recent form of both sides, with Sussex now confidently competing at the top end of the South Group with their fifth win from seven matches, while Kent remain marooned near the bottom with five losses in seven.

Sussex are prospering in the Blast | Picture: Eva GilbertSussex are prospering in the Blast | Picture: Eva Gilbert
Sussex are prospering in the Blast | Picture: Eva Gilbert

Sussex captain Tymal Mills said: “Ollie Robinson has been a massive bonus for us in this competition. He’s been outstanding and was again tonight, even though he bowled only three overs in the powerplay. He’s been high-class every game because he’s a high-class and highly-skilled bowler. He moves the ball, he seams it, he swings it, he knows what lengths to hit and he’s not going for any runs in the power-play.

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“We’ll find out soon whether we’ll have him for the rest of the Blast, or whether he’s in the Test squad. And hopefully we’ll get Jofra [Archer] back as well for a few games after the World Cup, and then we’ve got a pretty tasty bowling attack. I’m putting it out there, on record, that I want Jofra back. Jofra – we’re ready for you.

“This match, and the game against Hampshire on Friday, could define our season. If we beat Hampshire we’ve got a foot into the quarter-finals. But we’ve still got a way to go.”

On a beautifully clear evening in Hove, preluded by England’s dour 1-1 Euro 2024 draw with Denmark, Sussex were tested by being made to bat first by Kent captain Sam Billings.

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Sussex’s skipper Tymal Mills said he would have chosen to have a bat regardless, but when Kent’s new ball partnership of Marcus O’Riordan and Xavier Bartlett kept the hosts’ batsmen quiet in the first two overs, it looked like the start of a tough evening.

Such is the ebb and flow of a T20 night, though, that a gigantic Daniel Hughes six over cow corner began a jump from 3-0 to 22-0 in one costly Beyers Swanepoel over.

Harrison Ward became the aggressor from there, punching several meaty boundaries to the off-side boundary and lifting two glorious sixes over Grant Stewart’s head during the powerplay to quickly advance to a half-century.

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It took the Oxfordshire pathway graduate just 24 balls to reach his fourth T20 50, and after being left out of the start of this season’s Blast campaign, it felt like a real statement of intent on home soil.

Ultimately, Ward perished just seven runs short of the career-best 68 he had fired against Essex a week earlier, but with him and Daniel Hughes (26 off 16 balls) holing out to boundary catches, they had served their purpose.

It was down a middle order weakened by the decision to play two all-rounders, and exposed for this against Surrey the previous weekend, to then carry the baton.

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The signs were not great, either, when John Simpson was clean bowled by Swanepoel off just his fourth ball, and Tom Alsop was pinned plumb LBW by Matt Parkinson in the next over.

Blast expert Parkinson – the only bowler in the competition’s history, besides Mills, to have over 100 wickets and an average below 20 – then accounted for James Coles (21 off 13), who was in good nick before being wrapped on his pads.

While the Sharks could’ve easily folded in this situation, head coach Paul Farbrace’s key picks then came good.

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Fynn Hudson-Prentice dovetailed beautifully with Danny Lamb, with both all-rounders finding the pace of the pitch and then taking advantage of a ropey Stewart over to pile the pressure on Kent.

While Zak Crawley’s call to the umpire denied Hudson-Prentice a six when the ball appeared to hit the turf just after the boundary rope, Sussex were not to be frustrated for long.

Swanepoel became the victim with a 17th over costing 19 runs, including Lamb sixes pumped over long-off and ramped over Billings’ head.

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Having previously been on the peripheries of the game, Kent’s Australian paceman Bartlett – the leading wicket-taker in this season’s Big Bash – then made a late attempt to claw back the innings, removing both set batsmen in the 18th over.

With Nathan McAndrew and Ollie Robinson straining every sinew to put bat to ball, however, Sussex made it to an imposing 201-7 that looked hard to beat, even on a brilliant batting track.

So it proved, as Sussex’s extra bowling power told under the stark, almost interrogative, brightness of the revamped Hove floodlights.

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Robinson had first dibs on the gleaming white ball and cocked it like a grenade in his hand, treating England Test teammate Zak Crawley like an age group player as he beat him for pace first up and was unlucky to concede four, before sumptuously bowling the Kent man two balls later.

McAndrew was next in line for early joy, drawing a sorry nick from Marcus O’Riordan that saw the all-rounder – way too high at number three – out for a three-ball duck.

From there, Kent’s endlessly experienced pair of Daniel Bell-Drummond and Billings put on a clinic of patience, taking runs off Mills, Archie Lenham and Coles but keeping the spectators very much safe in the stands.

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Credit must go to Sussex’s fielders for near-faultless energy and accuracy to back up their bowlers, with Simpson immaculate behind the stumps and Robinson leading the charge in the infield.

For as long as Bell-Drummond and Billings – with 466 T20 career matches between them – stayed at the crease, Kent had a chance, however.

So when two great chances went begging, with Mills spilling a catch when Billings chanced his arm against Lenham and Coles letting a huge chance to have the Kent captain caught and bowled go when he spilt the ball that dropped out of the darkening sky, Sussex were crestfallen.

To revive the mood, enter magician Mills.

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The Sussex captain skipped in with typical focus and did Bell-Drummond like a kipper with a beautiful full delivery onto off-stump, taking the stump out of the ground with the batsman off balance.

Sussex had broken a 93-run stand and did not stop there, with Robinson pouching Billings on the boundary and sending the Sharks Stand wild when the Kent skipper aimed for a six off Danny Lamb.

Lamb was not done there, either, as he beautifully bowled Tawanda Muyeye for five in the next over and almost had Joey Evison caught, only for the onrushing Robinson to produce his only error of the night.

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Tight bowling from Mills and McAndrew followed before Lamb had his third victim, the counter-attacking former Sussex man Harry Finch out for 18 to a catch from Hughes.

All that remained, with 38 for Kent to win from the final over, was for McAndrew to have Swanepoel caught on one and the tailenders frustrated, leaving the winning margin at a powerful 30 runs.

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