THE SHARKS moved to the top of totesport League Division 2 after inflicting Kent’s ninth defeat in 12 limited-over starts under the floodlights at Hove.

An excellent bowling display by Simon Cook backed up by three stunning catches were never enough to paper over the cracks of another woeful Kent batting display as Sussex cantered past Kent’s total of 155 all out with four wickets and 21 balls overs to spare.

Cook gave Spitfires an inkling of a chance with an opening burst of three for 10 in seven overs, three of them maidens, that helped reduce the hosts to 22 for four within 11 overs of the response.

Aided by some excellent catching by Rob Ferley and Martin van Jaarsveld, who pocketed two apiece, Cook appeared to had seemingly bowled Kent into the driving seat - but Spitfires were to pay for their gamble of not playing a fifth specialist bowler.

Tim Ambrose (1), Chris Adams (3) and Murray Goodwin (0) all succumbed to Cook, while Ian Ward miscued to the tumbling Ferley at mid-on to silence a modest home crowd of 2,500.

But the introduction of Amjad Khan down the Hove slope for a wayward stint as Cook’s replacement, coupled with poor luck for Darren Stevens and far from threatening spells from Matt Walker and Rob Ferley collectively allowed Sharks to wriggle off the hook.

Sussex re-grouped through the unflappable and efficient Michael Yardy (65 from 96 balls) and local lad Carl Hopkinson (36), who added 103 in 25 overs for the fifth wicket.

Khan switched to the Sea End to rip out Hopkinson’s off stump with a shooting off-cutter, but by the time Fulton re-introduced Cook the game was as good as lost.

Yardy went with the scores level when swishing across the line to Khan, but a scrambled leg bye eased Sussex to their sixth win in eight starts from the very next ball.

Spitfires had started the match smoothly enough after electing to bat first as Hall and Rob Key hit four fours apiece in posting 30 for the first wicket.

Hall had looked completely at ease in his one-day opening role in reaching 20 before inexplicably running himself out in the eighth over to spark a dramatic Kent collapse.

Having worked a ball from Luke Wright down to third man Hall turned blind to set off for the second and despite diving for his ground lost the race up the hill against Mushtaq Ahmed’s throw.

Having disappeared for nine runs from his first over Rana Naved Ul-Hasan switched to the Cromwell Road End to claim two crucial wickets in his second.

Van Jaarsveld (0) steered a long-hop to Robin Martin Jenkins at third man then Walker (0) fenced at a lifter and walked off shaking his head after being given out caught behind by Ambrose.

David Fulton, back in charge after the Twenty20 debacle after accepting his side’s consensus to stand down, teamed up with Key to all-but double the score through to 64 before both fell in the space of two overs.

Having scored 16 from 32 balls Fulton edged a back foot force to slip then Key missed an on-drive against Wright to go leg before for a patient 26.

From there on in it was a war of attrition for Kent as they battled against some hostile bowling from James Kirtley and Naved and a pitch of variable bounce to score just four more boundaries in the last 25 overs of their innings.

Having dropped overseas all-rounder Justin Kemp, Fulton bought in Michael Carberry fresh from an excellent Twenty20 campaign in which he scored 242 runs at an average of 80.6.

But with his score on eight and just six balls after being hit on the shoulder by Kirtley, Carberry misread one from Mushtaq and was caught behind off a bottom edge.

Four overthrows took Spitfires into three figures but Mushtaq struck in his next over when he bamboozled joint top-scorer Stevens and pegged back his off stump for 28.

Niall O’Brien (17) and Cook (28) appeared intent on simply batting through the overs until Naved and Kirtley returned to polish off the job.

O’Brien was beaten all ends up by Naved’s slower ball that hit off stump then Kirtley finished it by bowling Ferley (4) and Khan (0) in successive balls.

Prior to the game players from both sides and the officials stood for a minutes’ silence in memory of the London bombing victims, while both county flags flew at half-mast.