Sussex 118-2 (14.1 overs)
Lancashire 114 (15.3 overs)
Sussex win by eight wickets
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 73-8 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 Saturday 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 succumb to poor shot selection.
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 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.
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.
Sussex captain Tymal Mills said: “We were brilliant all the way through really. We have been pretty poor in T20 cricket in the last couple of years so we made a big effort in the winter to identify where we need to improve.
“Credit to all the players and the coaching staff whose work has paid off. We now go to the finals day and I think we’ve got a good chance.
“Ollie Robinson and Brad Currie were outstanding with the new ball and they set the tone tonight and then Ollie ran out Liam Livingstone which was obviously a huge moment. Livi was striking it really well and Ollie did brilliantly to run him out.
“It’s been a few years since Jofra Archer played T20 for us and it was great for the crowd, even if it was only for one game. It certainly made my life easier knowing I had him up my sleeve.
“Our young batters then got the job done in as really calm way. It’s been a really good night overall.”
Lancashire captain Keaton Jennings said: “You don’t win many games with 115 on the board after losing five wickets in the first seven overs.
“We were excited about the game but we just didn’t perform. We let ourselves down with the bat, not the ball. We just didn’t get a quantity of runs to get us in the contest.
“Every risk we took didn’t go our way. I thought the Sussex lads executed well but in this format the game can go away from you pretty quickly.
“It’s tough finding the balance of keeping the game forward and not taking risks. We just couldn’t wrestle the game back in our favour.
“Liam Livingstone showed if you faced 30 or 40 balls that you could access all parts of the ground but the rest of the batting let us down.”
