Leicestershire 180-6 (17.4 overs) beat Sussex 179 (19.5 overs) by four wickets
An unbeaten half-century by Australian all-rounder Ashton Turner – the 20th of his T20 career – eased Leicestershire Foxes to a four-wicket victory against Sussex Sharks in the Vitality Blast at Hove.
Both teams had won just once in five games and Sussex squandered another good start when they were bowled out for 179 despite an opening stand of 98 in nine overs by Harrison Ward and Dan Hughes.
Leicestershire lost wickets regularly in the first half of their reply and the game was in the balance at 118-5 in the 13th over.
But Turner and skipper Ben Green plundered 41 from 20 balls to break the back of the chase and Turner sealed victory with 14 deliveries to spare.
His 57 off 28 balls included six fours and three sixes and was his second in this season’s competition.
For Sussex it was a familiar tale of missed opportunity. Their openers have put on 98, 67 and 98 in three of their last four games and lost them all.
Against Hampshire on Tuesday, they lost 9 for 55 in 10 overs and this time it was 10 for 84 in 11.3 as they were dismissed in 19.5 overs.
Ward hit five sixes on his way to a career-best 69 as he and Hughes progressed without any alarms.
But when left-arm spinner Liam Trevaskis had Ward caught trying to clear long off the innings plunged into a familiar tailspin.
Trevaskis and off-spinner Turner dried up scoring opportunities and whenever Sussex tried to up the tempo they lost wickets.
Turner had Hughes caught at long on for 25 and Trevaskis chipped in with 2-27 to help fillet the middle order.
Leicestershire’s fielding had been faultless until the 18th over when Tom Scriven put down Tom Alsop at deep mid-wicket.
And Alsop, who had just lofted Josh Davey on to the roof of the scoreboard for the first six for 10 overs, helped Tom Price put on a valuable 34 from 19 deliveries before another collapse saw the last four wickets go down in six balls.
For the second game running Sussex had not batted through their 20 overs and Leicestershire always had the chase under control.
Left-armer Sean Hunt picked up two wickets on his T20 debut but also bowled five wides and two no balls on another disappointing night for the hosts.
Sussex skipper Tymal Mills said: “Another disappointing night for us. Considering the start, we got we were disappointed with our score.
“Through the middle and back end, we didn’t kick on. With our left-handers scattered through the order and the short boundary on one side, we probably should have been closer to 200.
“With the ball we were just a bit loose. We started searching for wickets and conceded too many extras and the wicket got a bit quicker under lights.
“We are missing players, which doesn’t help, but no excuses. It’s been a tough campaign so far and we’re already in a situation where we will have to win a lot of the seven games we have left.”
Leicestershire coach Alfonso Thomas said: “That was a masterclass by Ashton Turner. That is why he is in such demand around the world in T20 cricket.
“It was a high-class performance all round. They got away a little bit in the powerplay but we felt quite comfortable keeping them to under 180.
“Liam Trevaskis has been a standout bowler for us and he helped squeeze them in the middle.
“We were clever in the way we made them hit to the long boundary and although a couple of catches went down, the pleasing thing is that everyone made a contribution.”
