Sussex Sharks 284-9 (50 overs)
Yorkshire 286-4 (47.4 overs)
Yorkshire win by six wickets
Yorkshire, the outstanding team in Group B of the Metro Bank One Day Cup, made sure of qualification for the climax of the competition with their sixth win in seven games.
The Sussex Sharks, meanwhile, with one game remaining, cannot progress.
A second-wicket stand of 196 in 33 overs between Imam-ul-Haq and James Wharton provided the foundation of Yorkshire’s ultimately comfortable win, with 14 balls to spare.
Imam continued his outstanding form with 106 from 105 deliveries, with ten fours and three sixes, while Wharton struck a List A best 85 from 103 balls.
But the pair’s failure to accelerate put Yorkshire under some pressure when they lost both batsmen in successive overs, followed by the quick dismissal of Finlay Bean.
That meant they needed 58 off seven overs, and 51 off six, before some late hitting by Matt Revis and George Hill saw them over the line.
The Sussex innings was one of two halves, in which they scored 97 in the first 25 overs and 187 in the second as Matt Milnes took seven wickets for 38 runs.
The bowling figures were Yorkshire’s third best in List A cricket and their best since 1997. Milnes also took a hat-trick and almost managed a second.
Sussex have had a number of batting collapses in this year’s competition and here they managed two, losing three wickets for six runs in 12 balls early on and then three in three balls to Milnes towards the end.
Between these low points, however, they staged a remarkable recovery, led by Oli Carter who made 94 from 79 deliveries was – his best score in List A.
The first building blocks of the Sussex fightback were put down by Charlie Tear (35) and John Simpson (65) who came together at 24-3 and put on a patient 60 from 15 overs.
But it was the partnership between Simpson and Carter, who added 79 for the fifth wicket in 12 overs, which transformed the match.
Then came a depth charge from Danny Lamb who thumped 53 from 45 deliveries to give his side a challenging total.
Carter reached his fifty from 55 balls when he pulled Hill for the second of his five sixes – there were also seven fours – and it was then that he accelerated, judging length very well and scampering his runs when he failed to find the boundary.
He was out in the 45th over, caught as he attempted to ramp Milnes. Jack Carson lifted his first ball to long-on and then Archie Lenham was lbw to give Milnes his hat-trick.
But the bowler almost had three in three when he dismissed Tom Haines and Tom Clark with successive deliveries and then saw Hudson-Prentice scoop his first delivery just short of midwicket.
Shortly after this a Sussex-supporting seagull descended on Milnes, who was fielding at long leg, and robbed him of his banana.
Milnes said: “It was a pretty good day, to get the win and to get the home semi-final, all being well. We’ll have a bit more time off now, hopefully. I’m pretty happy.
“We set the tone early on. We bowled pretty well up front. The pitch offered a tiny bit at the start. And then we did a steady job of closing it out at the end.
“The way the guys approached that innings was high class. Imam was a pleasure to watch and Wharts as well. There are a lot of confident lads in that group. We were completely in control of that chase.”
Sussex batting coach Grant Flower said: “We came back well. But we were still under par. It was a good wicket – even though it was the third time we played on it.
“It was probably a 310 to 320 wicket. We just kept losing wickets at the wrong time. But I thought Carter deserved a hundred.
“He used the short boundary well and he’s a very good player of spin. He’s a good player and he keeps improving. But we didn’t quite nail it.”
