Essex 191-5 (20 overs)
Sussex Sharks 192-4 (16 overs)
Sussex Sharks win by 6 wickets
John Simpson hurried Sussex Sharks to an opening-day Vitality Blast success with eight sixes in a whirlwind 63 from 23 balls against Essex.
The wicketkeeper-batsman dealt almost exclusively in maximums – he only hit one four – as he flayed the Essex attack to all parts of Chelmsford in a ferocious one-man pyrotechnic display.
He put on 82 with James Coles for the third wicket in five and a half overs to help Sussex towards their target with 24 balls and six wickets to spare. Coles’s own half-century was almost overshowed.
For Essex it was another chastening T20 evening. They won just three games when finishing bottom of the south group last year and this performance did not augur well for an improvement this time around.
Daniel Hughes laid the foundations for the Sharks to chase down 192 with a hard-hitting 44 but it was Simpson who inflicted the damage, starting with a six off the first ball he faced.
Michael Pepper and Paul Walter put on 105 from 62 balls for the first Essex wicket, both batsmen reaching fifties, but apart from a whirlwind 36 at a strike-rate of 200 by Luc Benkenstein, Essex’s 191-5 looked slightly undercooked. And so it proved.
Essex, put in on a green wicket, reached 53 without loss in a powerplay that they were not quite able to dominate.
But the gloves came off when the Sussex spinners were introduced, with Walter leaning back and skying Danny Briggs for six over long-on and Pepper launching James Coles over deep midwicket’s head for a maximum.
The two slow bowlers would go for 72 from a combined seven overs but shared three of the five wickets to fall.
The innings exploded briefly in the 10th over with three sixes off Brad Currie, two of them to Pepper, who reached his half-century from 33 balls.
But Danny Lamb ended the onslaught when he bowled Pepper who was attempting a reverse sweep.
Walter followed Pepper to fifty with a lofted, straight-driven four from his 30th ball. But he lost Matt Critchley soon after, picking out long-off. Walter himself went in similar fashion, caught at long-on, and Wiaan Mulder holed out on the midwicket boundary.
Benkenstein, however, had Briggs’s measure with three sixes down the ground, two in one over. He sent a fourth over Coles’s head but next ball played over one that angled in and lost his middle and leg stumps.
Sussex lost Tom Clark early on, chipping Charlie Bennett to mid-on after easing him over long-off for six.
But Sussex were not seriously derailed as Hughes rattled off boundaries at a rate of almost two runs a ball, and Coles lofted Zaman Akhter for a straight six. They had knocked off 79 of the target by the end of their powerplay.
However, with 10 boundaries to his name, Hughes tried to reach his fifty with a six but was caught at long-off.
John Simpson showed him how to do it to his first ball. Simpson evidently wanted an early night as he added a second maximum in only four balls faced with two more following before his innings was a dozen balls old. A fifth was pulled high over square leg to bring up the fifty partnership in just 24 balls.
His seventh maximum, driven straight, marked his own half-century from just 18 balls. Five balls later he departed, caught predictably in the deep with just 30 needed for victory. Coles exited with just two runs required for 50 from 29 balls.
Sussex captain Tymal Mills said: “It’s always nice to win, get into the competition early, get rid of the points deficit that we’re under, get that out the way early, that’s nice. A brilliant performance all round.
“It’s frustrating because we have been given a points deficit through no fault of the players. We’re playing with only one overseas player as well this year.
“And we’ve got injuries so we’re a little bit thin on the ground but we’ve got bags of good form.
“We’ll stick together. We’ve got a good changing room, a great bunch of lads and we want to win games of cricket.
“The boys have started well in the Championship and would be joint top, I believe, (but for the points deduction) and we’ve had a good run out here and laid a good marker down.
“I thought we were looking at chasing 200-plus but I thought we did really well to strangle them and keep them to a score under 200. That is a chaseable score at Chelmsford. The boys in the powerplay set the tone.
“Simo played like he’s probably never played before for Sussex. He set a high standard.
“We spoke about hitting down the ground because we got hit there when they batted so we wanted to target the sightscreens and the boys did that.
“Simo, that first ball coming out put the pressure on a little bit. It was proper ball-striking.”
Essex director of cricket Chris Silverwood said: “They took the fight to us. I thought we started well with Walts and Peps but we faltered between overs 10 and 15 and lost four wickets.
“We know it is very difficult to defend here so we could have done with a few more runs.
“It was smart the way they did it. They put pressure on our bowlers so we’ve got to give them credit.
“We’ve got what we’ve got in terms of the squad at the moment. It’s a great opportunity for some of them with Sam, Chalrie (Allison) and Coxy all missing at the moment.
“I think we can put runs on the board. We just need to concentrate on getting good starts. It’s opportunities for others but we should have the others back in three games’ time.
“We need to get this out of our system, regroup and go again – and make sure we come out stronger next time.”
