Ruthless Surrey replaced Sussex Sharks at the top of the Vitality Blast South Group after an impressive win by 54 runs at Hove.
Sussex came into the contest on the back of a four-match winning streak including a 36-run victory at the Kia Oval last week.
But they never recovered after losing three wickets in the first four overs and were bowled out for 130 in 18.1 overs chasing 185 by a highly effective Surrey attack.
Australian Spencer Johnson removed Harrison Ward and James Coles in the opening over of a quality new-ball spell and when Sean Abbott accounted for Daniel Hughes, who came into the contest with 224 runs in his previous five Blast games, Sussex were 24-3 and up against it.
John Simpson made 25, Jack Carson 24 and Fynn Hudson-Prentice 23 but this was a reality check for Sussex against a Surrey team who have four wins and a tie from their first six matches.
In front of a 4,800 full house Surrey had been put in and their 184-8 was dominated by Lawrie Evans’s 41 and Jamie Smith’s 45. It always looked a competitive score on a pitch at the 1st Central County Ground which offered movement for the seamers throughout.
Evans took charge against his old county after Ollie Robinson had Dan Lawrence caught at short third off the fourth ball of the innings, sharing 67 in 37 balls alongside Dom Sibley with 19 runs coming off successive overs by Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Nathan McAndrew in a power play that yielded 66.
Both fell in successive overs with Evans held at deep backward-square in Sussex skipper Tymal Mills’s first over as three wickets fell in nine balls in the middle of the innings.
Only 22 runs were scored between the eighth and 11th overs but Smith picked up the tempo again after Ollie Pope, who made an unbeaten 99 in a losing cause when the teams met last Friday, was caught behind for a duck attempting to ramp Robinson.
Smith and Rory Burns, deputising for Jason Roy who had a calf injury, put on 69 off 37 balls for the fifth wicket, with Smith muscling the ball over the rope four times in his 45 from 28 deliveries before he was caught trying to clear long on. Danny Lamb, who mixed up his pace and lengths effectively, finished with 3 for 36.
Ward had made 68 on Friday in Sussex’s win over Essex but here he spliced a pull off the second ball of the match before Johnson bowled Coles through the gate with a nip-backer.
When Hughes got a thin edge to Abbott’s lifter Surrey’s celebrations reflected the importance of his wicket.
Simpson and Tom Alsop put on 32 but Gus Atkinson picked up Simpson with his second ball and Lawrence removed Alsop with his first.
When Tom Curran struck off successive deliveries in his second over, Sussex’s race was run, although Robinson and Jack Carson at least added 34 for the ninth wicket to restrict the damage to their net run rate.
Sussex skipper Tymal Mills said: “The ball seamed around for quite a long time and we gave them 20 too many with the ball. We should have made a better fist of it with the bat and when you’re seven down for 70-odd you are up against it, so credit to the lads down the order who got us to a semi-respectable total. We’d like to have taken the chase deeper but they have got a high-quality bowling attack so there are things to learn there for us. But I’m not going to get too down after one bad game; we would have settled for four wins out of six at this stage.”
Surrey fast bowler Spencer Johnson, who took 2 for 20, said: “It’s always nice to start well. Taking the first over and new ball in a T20 is a fair bit of responsibility so to contribute is good. It was quite a tricky wicket and we finished our innings thinking we had 15-20 over par. It nipped around a bit and Sussex have some handy bowlers so credit to our batters for getting us to the total we did. It felt like our best all-round performance so far and after last night’s tie against Gloucestershire it was good to get two points and go back to the top of the table. We’ve got Middlesex in our next game which will be my first time at Lord’s so I’m looking forward to that.”
