Essex 148-4 (16.1 overs)
Sussex Sharks 145 (18.2 overs)
Sussex Sharks lost to Essex by six wickets
Michael Pepper’s pyrotechnical 87 off 47 balls led Essex to their first home Vitality Blast victory in exactly a year as Sussex Sharks’ quarter-final hopes took a new battering.
The Eagles hadn’t won at the Ambassador Cruise Line Ground, in Chelmsford, in a T20 since downing Kent Spitfires on Thursday 11 July last year, after a dismal beginning to this season.
Mohammad Amir’s tight 3 for 16, backed by two-fors for Simon Harmer, Sam Cook and Shane Snater rolled the visitors for 145, with a lively 52 from John Simpson the only bright spark for the Sharks.
Essex would have almost certainly won the reverse fixture had rain not intervened and Pepper’s season-best made sure they weren’t thwarted again to give them just their second win in the competition.
Sussex have lost three of their last four Blast matches to slip into mid-table, with Sunday’s clash with Hampshire Hawks crucial to their hopes of a quarter-final spot.
Tonight, barring Simpson’s fifty, the Sharks’ innings was a catastrophe from start to finish, having chosen to bat first in the sunshine.
Daniel Hughes got away with an edge to slip off the third ball of the match and, despite rushing to 27 off 15 balls, gave Snater a hanger at deep square leg.
The top order, heavy with left-handers, struggled to deal with Simon Harmer spinning the ball away from them as the Eagles skipper returned 2 for 25.
One of those, James Coles, offered him a caught and bowled while right-handed Danny Lamb slapped to backward point when Harmer returned later in the innings.
Amir and Snater were super-accurate to back up their captain as Sussex spluttered to 76-4 at the halfway point, with Tom Clark falling to Sam Cook.
Simpson was the antidote to the carousel of wickets with a smart half-century in a blink and you’ll miss it 25 balls, decorated by three sixes down the ground and another on the sweep.
He put on 39 with Tom Alsop and 42 with Lamb but neither foundation built skyscrapers in the run-rate graph.
And the last five wickets dissolved in 16 balls, with the last three falling in the space of four deliveries.
Lamb was the first of the quintet to fall. Then Simpson couldn’t get hold of a hook. Amir bowled Ollie Robinson and had Tymal Mills caught in successive balls and the innings was rounded off by Nathan McAndrew holing out.
Paul Walter and Jordan Cox gave Sussex hope by coming and going inside three overs but once Pepper got motoring, every delivery to him felt like cannon fodder.
Bowling to Pepper is a nightmare as he mixes power with innovative flicks as he hammered his third fifty of the season in 22 balls.
Charlie Allison helped take a huge bite into the chase with a 69 stand, before the youngster tried for a third six in five balls and picked out deep midwicket.
It began a 20-ball boundary dry spell, with Lamb in particular hard to get away. But the run rate was in Essex’s favour.
And, despite Matt Critchley hitting down deep square’s throat, Pepper and Luc Benkenstein made sure of the four points with an unbroken 54-run stand.
Pepper confirmed the emphatic victory by carting his 14th four for Essex to win with 23 balls to spare.
