Sussex Sharks Secure Home Quarter-Final with Nine-Wicket Thrashing of

Sussex Sharks secured a home quarter-final in the Vitality Blast after thrashing Middlesex by nine wickets in front of a sell-out crowd at Hove. The victory propelled Sussex into second place in the South Group, leapfrogging Somerset, who lost heavily to Glamorgan in Cardiff.

The pitch at the 1st Central County Ground was being used for the third time, but Middlesex's 159 for 9 never looked like being enough. Sussex openers Harrison Ward and Daniel Hughes put on a dominant 141-run partnership in 15.1 overs, Sussex's fourth highest stand for any wicket in T20.

Hughes, in his debut season in the Blast, is now the tournament's leading scorer with 560 runs. He remained unbeaten on 96, hitting 12 fours and three sixes. Ward, who had been drafted into the Hundred for the first time with Oval Invincibles earlier in the day, celebrated with his third half-century of the competition.

Apart from a mix-up which nearly ended in Hughes being run out, the Sussex pair dominated the Middlesex bowling. Ward was eventually caught at deep mid-wicket for 56 (42 balls, 5 fours, 1 six).

Hughes faced just 54 balls, hitting 12 fours and three sixes. He hit the winning six with 22 deliveries to spare, equaling his T20 career-best with his fourth fifty.

Sussex's disciplined bowling had set up the victory. They had reduced Middlesex to 22 for 3 by the third over, with Ollie Robinson picking up a wicket with the first ball of his first two overs. Leus du Plooy was superbly caught at short-cover by Hughes, and Danny Lamb produced an even better effort to remove Max Holden.

Later in the same over, Lamb put down a chance to reprieve Jack Davies on nought and had to go off with an injury to his right shoulder. It left Sussex a bowler light, but slow left-armer James Coles (2 for 28) and off-spinner Jack Carson (2 for 23) strangled Middlesex's attempts to accelerate. Davies celebrated his reprieve by making 52, hitting four boundaries in an over off Scott Currie and three sixes. However, Carson got him in the 14th over courtesy of one of three catches on the mid-wicket boundary by Tom Clark.

Luke Hollman made 28 at the end, but Hughes and Ward soon had Sussex's chase under control. Middlesex finished another disappointing campaign second from bottom after winning just three games.

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