Vitality Blast: Sussex thrash Lancashire by eight wickets to reach T20 Blast finals day
Lancashire bowled out for 114 in 15.3 overs and Sussex reach victory target with 35 balls to spare to book passage to T20 Vitality Blast finals day; watch the final at Edgbaston on Saturday 14 September, live on Sky Sports
Friday 6 September 2024 09:59, UK
Sussex are through to finals day in the T20 Blast for the sixth time after an outstanding bowling performance set up an emphatic eight-wicket win over Lancashire in a one-sided semi-final at Hove.
Lancashire were bowled out for 114 in 15.3 overs and Sussex reached their victory target with 35 balls to spare.
The 2009 winners 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 eight in the 11th over.
Jofra Archer, playing his first T20 for Sussex since 2021, picked up 2-20 and bowled at good pace.
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It needed some bold hitting by Liam Livingstone, who top-scored with 43, to boost Lancashire's total.
With only the tail for company Livingstone had little option but to take some risks. He twice lofted Tymal Mills on to 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 trying to steal the strike.
A target of 115 was never likely to trouble the Sharks. 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 an unbroken 45 for the third wicket to ensure Sussex will be heading to Edgbaston on September 14 for their first finals day since 2020.
Watch the final of the T20 Vitality Blast at Edgbaston on Saturday 14 September, live on Sky Sports Cricket
