Sussex strengthens its quarter-final claims by CricketArchive Staff Reporter

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Ground:	Aigburth, Liverpool, Trent Bridge, Nottingham, County Ground, Bristol, County Ground, Hove, The Nevill Ground, Tunbridge Wells, County Ground, Chelmsford
Scorecard:	Sussex v Surrey, Essex v Middlesex, Kent v Hampshire, Nottinghamshire v Yorkshire, Gloucestershire v Warwickshire, Lancashire v Leicestershire
Player:	LJ Wright, MW Goodwin, ML Pettini, MJ Lumb, DI Stevens, RWT Key, IR Bell, IJL Trott, IE O'Brien, J Allenby, AW Gale, AD Brown
Event:	Twenty20 Cup 2009

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DateLine: 23rd June 2009

 

North Division

 

Nottinghamshire swept home by 11 runs at Trent Bridge as they beat Yorkshire. Matthew Wood played a breezy 45 earlier in the innings and then towards the end Ali Brown went hammer thongs as he tore apart the Yorkshire bowlers with 66 from just 32 balls, with five fours and four sixes. Andrew Gale and Naved-ul-Hasan put on 42 for the opening wicket in Yorkshire's reply, but Naved fell to Mark Ealham and Vaughan was trapped in front by Samit Patel soon after. Gale remained firm; cracking 76 from 51.

 

Iain O'Brien took 5 for 23 to lead his side to an emphatic win over Lancashire at Liverpool. Leicestershire made 146 for 5 and they were indebted to Jim Allenby for his powerful 69 from 45, and useful contributions from the lower-order. Lancashire were soon reduced to 58 for 4, as O'Brien cut through their top-order - including the wicket of Andrew Flintoff for 5. Steven Croft made 40 and Mark Chilton made 34 from 32, but the task was just too much for the Lancashire batsmen as they folded up meekly.

 

Midlands, Wales, West Division

 

Jonathan Trott helped Warwickshire ease past Gloucestershire with a seven-wicket win at Bristol. Gloucestershire could manage only 141 all out after losing the toss and the notable contributions were from Dawid Brown who made 33 and Hamish Marshall who made 25. There were three wickets each for Rikki Clarke, Ant Botha and Jeetan Patel. Warwickshire had few problems reaching their target, with 3.5 overs to spare - as Trott hit an unbeaten 73 off 52 balls and he was well supported by Ian Bell who contributed a rapid 42 from just 22 deliveries. Bell and Trott were involved in an exhilarating partnership of 64 in five overs. Both batsmen were in an aggressive mood and they proved impossible to contain.

 

South Division

 

Kent beat Hampshire in a close contest by eight runs at Tunbridge Wells and made those important strides in the points table. Rob Key made an unbeaten 58 from 52 balls, while Darren Stevens exploded to make 56 from 27, which included six sixes and two fours. Kent set Hampshire a challenging 183, and Hampshire was off to a flier with Michael Lumb hitting 59 from 33 at the top of the order. There were pairs of 30s from Michael Carberry and Chris Benham, but Hampshire continued to lose wickets at vital moments and their required run-rate spiralled to reach astronomical proportions.

 

Mark Pettini turned in a captain's performance to earn Essex an eight-wicket triumph at home to Middlesex to boost their hopes of reaching the quarter-final stages of the Twenty20 Cup. After Middlesex had been bowled out for 148 in 19.2 overs at Chelmsford, Pettini plundered an unbeaten 80 from 57 balls - with 10 fours and one six. Middlesex had no one who batted with Pettini’s assurance. For Middlesex Tyron Henderson struck a belligerent 28 from 23 balls, five of which he dispatched to the boundary. But when Henderson was bowled by Bopara the visitors had lost half their side for 60 - but were revived by Eoin Morgan and Dawid Malan. They shared a stand of 60 in seven overs before both were dismissed for 31 in the same Grant Flower over. Pakistan leg-spinner Danish Kaneria emerged as Essex's most successful bowler with 3-23 from 3.2 overs. He received fine support from Flower and Graham Napier, who had figures of 2-21 and 2-29 respectively.

 

Sussex strengthened their bid for a place in the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup after a convincing six-wicket win over Surrey Brown Caps. The win was Sussex’s fourth in a row and keeps them top of the South Group. Chasing a modest target of 124, the Sharks coasted to victory in 16.5 overs leaving Surrey with only slender hopes of reaching the knockout stages. The foundations for a successful chase were laid in an opening stand of 71 in 10 overs between Murray Goodwin and Luke Wright. Wright was stumped after giving Usman Afzaal the charge while Matt Prior was trapped by Chris Schofield and Stewart Walters cleaned up Goodwin. Dwayne Smith, who belted one straight six out of the ground, hit the winning boundary with 19 balls to spare. Robin Martin-Jenkins who broke the back of the Surrey batting with three wickets in his new-ball spell. He removed Afzaal and Scott Newman caught and then claimed the key wicket of Mark Ramprakash. Yardy picked up two wickets in successive balls to remove Matt Spriegel and Walters then Piyush Chawla, in what will be his only Twenty20 appearance for Sussex, deceived James Benning and Chris Jordan with googlies.