Fizz’s Sussex suffer Surrey blow

Mustafizur Rahman's Sussex Sharks suffered a potentially crippling blow to their NatWest T20 Blast campaign as they were comfortably defeated by Surrey at the Kia Oval by six wickets.

Bangladesh's left arm pacer had an unusually off day at the office, and conceded 31 runs in 3.2 overs. He was brought for an over during the first power-play, and gave away ten runs, courtesy of consecutive boundaries struck by Jason Roy. In the 13th over, Fizz fared much better as Sibley and Foakes could eke out only four runs.

The 17th over was ruined by Foakes with a last-ball boundary, and nine runs were scored. By the time Sussex captain Luke Wright had decided to give Fizz another over, the writing was on the wall as far as the Sharks were concerned. Surrey won the game with ten balls to spare as Chris Morris flayed Fizz for a six over midwicket.

The Sharks were aiming to follow up their victory against Essex at Chelmsford on Thursday to consolidate their position in the top four of the South Group, reports The Argus.

With Ross Taylor having finished his stint with Sussex, their batting was found wanting as they could only score 153-6 having been put in to bat by a Surrey side who desperately needed a win to revive their hopes of progressing.

With other results in the group going against the Sharks last night it means that even victory against Glamorgan in their final game at Hove next Thursday would not guarantee them a place in the knockout stages.

Surrey 154 for 4 (Sibley 40, Roy 36) beat Sussex 153 for 6 (Cachopa 45, Nash 39) by six wickets