Vitality Blast Quarter-Final defeat for Lancashire Lightning at Hove
Sussex Sharks are through to Vitality Blast Finals Day for the sixth time after an outstanding performance by their bowling attack set up an emphatic eight-wicket win over Lancashire Lightning in a one-sided semi-final at Hove.
The 2009 winners, who were runners-up six years ago, were on top from the moment Ollie Robinson spoiled Phil Salt’s return to the south coast by knocking out his middle stump with the first ball of the match.
Robinson returned to the attack in the seventh over to york captain Keaton Jennings for 37, the first of five wickets to fall in four overs as Lancashire slid to 73 for 8 in the 11th over.
It needed some bold hitting by Liam Livingstone, who top-scored with 43, to get Lancashire up to 114 as Jofra Archer, playing his first T20 for Sussex since 2021 and his first at Hove for more than five years, picked up two wickets and bowled at good pace.
But a target of 115 was never likely to trouble the Sharks in fast-scoring conditions. The pitch was flat, the outfield quick and Harrison Ward set the platform with six boundaries as Sussex knocked off 63 – more than half their target – in the powerplay.
George Dockrell took a juggling one-handed catch to remove Ward and this season’s leading run scorer Daniel Hughes had taken his aggregate to 595 when he was bowled in Livingstone’s first over.
But James Coles and Tom Clark put on 45 unbroken for the third wicket, Clark hitting the winning runs with 5.5 overs to spare to ensure Sussex will be back at Edgbaston for the first time since 2020 on 14 September.
A 5,000 full house at the 1st Central County Ground had been on their feet when Salt, shaping to play through the leg side, was bowled by Robinson after Lancashire, who had won both times in previous quarter-finals at Hove, had been put in.
Brad Currie struck twice in the fourth over, bowling Matty Hurst off his pads before another former Sussex player Luke Wells was held by Archer trying to clear long on.
Jennings and Livingstone briefly steadied things with 24 for the fourth wicket but when the Lancashire captain was beaten by Robinson’s late inswing in the eighth over, his partner watched a succession of middle-order teammates depart. Left-arm spinner James Coles picked up two cheap wickets and Tom Hartley slogged off-spinner Jack Carson to long on.
With only the tail for company Livingstone had little option but to take some risks. He twice lofted Tymal Mills onto the pavilion roof and crunched Archer over the long off boundary before he was run out by Robinson’s brilliant direct hit after being sent back by Luke Wood.
Archer, who had picked up his first wicket when Steven Croft carved his ninth delivery to deep point, returned to finish the innings when he dismissed Saqib Mahmood with 27 deliveries not bowled.