Kent Spitfires v Sussex Sharks

SUSSEX chased their highest total in five seasons of Twenty20 competition to land a spectacular seven-wicket win over Kent at St Lawrence, cantering home with 17 balls to spare to silence a crowd of 4,500.

Chasing what appeared to be a good Kent total of 181 for three, the Sharks were indebted to 22-year-old man-of-the-match Luke Wright who smashed his maiden limited overs hundred to take the visitors to the brink of victory and leave Kent's hopes of moving to the top of the qualifying table in tatters.

Kent made their first breakthough of the Sussex reply in the second over when Morne Morkel, with only his sixth ball of the night, beat Chris Nash (1) for pace and plucked out his middle stump.

Murray Goodwin (30) and Luke Wright then added 68 in eight overs to move well ahead of the asking rate before James Tredwell gave Spitfires their next success in his second over. Drawing Goodwin down the pitch with flight, the batsman virtually yorked himself and presented Geraint Jones with a comfortable stumping and Tredwell with his only scalp.

The scores were tied after 13 overs, both teams had reached 121 at that point which, with captain Rob Key off the field nursing a strained hamstring, prompted stand-in skipper Martin van Jaarsveld to withdraw Tredwell from the firing line and bring back Morkel prematurely.

The ploy should have brought about the demise of Chris Adams for 10, but his weak clip to mid-on was downed by Tredwell and Sussex made the most of the let off by taking 20 off the next over from Simon Cook, including a six into the marquees at mid-wicket by Adams.

The Sharks required 35 to win from the last five overs with eight wickets still in hand and crucially, Wright was still out there going for his shots and Kent were starting to appear shell-shocked.

The all-rounder moved to a 44-ball century, the third fastest in Twenty20 history, with a straight six of Yasir Arafat the sixth of his stay to go alongside 11 fours but, with his side eight from victory, he heaved across the line at the next delivery to lose his off stump.

It mattered little as Adams deftly flicked to fine leg to hit the winning runs and inflict Kent's first defeat of the campaign with almost three overs of the match remaining.

Had it not been for a brace of farcical run outs earlier in the night, Kent would have certainly gone on to post their best ever total in Twenty20 cricket, as it was they fell five short of the record on 181 for three.

Once again skipper Rob Key, having promoted himself to open the batting in this cut and thrust format, who top-scored with a sublime 62 from 46 balls this despite having to change the new ball after just one over, apparently the teams had started the game with a ladies' sized ball.

Playing proper cricket shots on the whole, he did try and reverse sweep Mushtaq Ahmed's first ball and ended up looking rather foolish, Key clattered seven fours and a brace of sixes on his way to a 39-ball half-century, his second of this campaign.

He featured in a bright opening stand of 65 with Joe Denly, who contributed the first 17 runs and 34 from 25 balls overall before running himself out in the eighth over.

Backing up as Key attempted a run down to third man, Denly slipped on the lush square and was run out by a couple of yards as the throw went in to the non-striker's end.

Before long Denly was back out in the middle as runner for Key who suffered a slight hamstring pull when turning for a second run, but this time Denly's involvement proved even briefer.

With Key on strike to James Kirtley there appeared little or no danger when the pace bowler sent down a wide, keeper Andrew Hodd collected the ball, threw it to extra cover and, having assumed the ball was dead, runner Denly at square-leg sidled down the pitch so he could mark the proximity of the crease at the bowlers end. The ball was soon returned to Hodd who, with Key in his crease but Denly well out, whipped off the bails to controversially run out the Kent skipper.

Matt Walker sidled in to hit a big six off Ollie Rayner's first ball, but the spinner had the last laugh by having the left-hander caught at deep mid-wicket when trying to repeat the feat.

The innings petered out thereafter, with one boundary in the final four overs and only 21 runs from the last three overs, with Martin van Jaarsveld unbeaten on 42 from 28 balls while Ryan McLaren chipped in with 22 from 16. Though they had helped to post Kent's best Cup total in Canterbury, Spitfires were unable to defend it.