Gloucestershire 185-5 (20 overs)
Sussex Sharks 189-6 (20 overs)
Sussex Sharks win by four wickets
Danny Lamb held his nerve to hit 16 runs off five balls and carry the Sussex Sharks to a dramatic last-ball four-wicket win over Gloucestershire in a thrilling Vitality Blast encounter.
Chasing a victory target of 186, the Sharks required 15 runs off the final over, bowled by David Payne.
Lamb clubbed three boundaries, including one off the final ball, to stun the crowd into silence and end Gloucestershire’s defence of the title they lifted last year.
James Coles hit 62 from 40 balls and Tom Alsop 55 from 33. The pair staged a superb fourth-wicket alliance of 106 in 9.2 overs to set-up a remarkable win and keep alive the chance of Sussex making the quarter-finals.
D’Arcy Short top-scored with a 45-ball 66, struck seven fours and three sixes and dominated a stand of 81 in 8.5 overs with fellow Australian Cameron Bancroft, who contributed 45.
And Ben Charlesworth blazed 44 not out at the death as Gloucestershire posted 185-5. Henry Crocombe claimed 3 for 32 and Nathan McAndrew 1 for 21 from four tight overs to keep the Sharks in the hunt.
Gloucestershire skipper Jack Taylor’s decision to bat first was vindicated by Hammond and Short, who staged an enterprising opening stand of 26 in three overs.
Cheltenham-born Hammond twice clipped Ollie Robinson off his legs for four and then put Tymal Mills over the rope at deep mid-wicket to energise a sell-out crowd of 5,000.
There were mixed fortunes for Robinson, who had Hammond held at backward point for 18, only to then blot his copybook by dropping Short at mid-off on eight off the bowling of McAndrew.
Short rubbed salt in the wound, twice driving the former England bowler down the ground and then cutting him for another four as the powerplay yielded 51 runs.
Bancroft proved adept at rotating the strike as the second wicket pair posted 50 in 33 balls. Feeding off the pace of Mills, Short pulled him backward of square for an imposing six before going to his fourth half century in five innings via 37 deliveries.
Handily placed on 86-1 at halfway, Gloucestershire kicked on, Short twice lifting Coles over mid-wicket for six as the score entered three figures in the 11th.
Introduced at the College Lawn End, Crocombe broke the partnership, persuading Short to hole out on the square leg boundary with the score 107-2.
Relief proved only temporary for the Sussex seamers, Charlesworth putting a short ball from Crocombe over square and out of the ground before lifting Danny Lamb into the crowd at long-on to propel Gloucestershire to 134-2 after 15 overs.
Crocombe stuck to his task and produced a quicker delivery to bowl Bancroft for 45 and terminate an innings that had occupied 33 balls and included five fours.
