Ravi Bopara leads Sussex home after Obed McCoy’s four wickets

Ravi Bopara’s captain’s innings of 54 not out off 36 deliveries helped Sussex Sharks overcome Middlesex for the first time in the Vitality Blast season.

Sussex won a rain-affected match by five wickets with three balls to spare, drawing level with their South Group opponents with a third victory despite having played one match more than Middlesex. Bopara and Harrison Ward shared a decisive sixth-wicket unbroken stand of 58 in 6.5 overs as Sussex won by five wickets with three balls to spare to draw level with their South Group opponents with a third victory.

Ward blasted Toby Roland-Jones over far on off the back foot for six in a 14th over that cost 16 runs and included legside fours from both Ward and Bopara.

With 10 needed from the last over, Bopara swung Martin Andersson’s fast-medium high over far on and followed it up with a leg-glanced four to complete the triumph in front of a crowd of more than 4,000 at the First Central County Ground.

Obed McCoy, a West Indian left-arm seamer, took 4 for 30 in Middlesex’s 163 all-out total, in which Joe Cracknell smashed two sixes and eight fours in a 49-ball 68.

Sussex’s chase was delayed by rain, leaving them needing 146 from 17 overs to win under Duckworth Lewis Stern rules, and Roland-Jones struck with his first ball, catching Luke Wright for 5 at deep mid wicket.

The Sharks were 20 for 2 when Jason Behrendorff dismissed Ali Orr for ten, and they were considerably worse at 37 for 3 when Roland-Jones returned to dismiss Tom Alsop for eight.

Tim Seifert of New Zealand batted attractively for a 21-ball 35 on his Sussex debut, with six fours and a six off Luke Hollman’s leg spin, but he was leg-before to a Martin Andersson near-yorker, and Delray Rawlins was pinned lbw for 10 by Chris Green two overs later, in the 10th, after smearing the off spinner for six.

Bopara and Ward, on the other hand, made a 46-run equation appear simple, with Bopara ending with a six and seven fours and Ward undefeated on 22.

Steven Finn had taken 3 for 29 against his previous county earlier in the evening, striking with his first ball when Max Holden hoisted a square shot straight to the fielder on the cover boundary to go for 5 in the second over.

Stevie Eskinazi also had a good game, scoring 31 off just 18 balls, but after slashing Finn and driving Rawlins for sixes, he fell to the penultimate ball of Middlesex’s powerplay, allowing him to drive Finn away for a third four of the over but thin-edging to keeper Seifert instead.

Middlesex were 101 for two at the midway stage of their innings, but instead of going on to something bigger, they crumbled, losing their final eight wickets for 56 runs in 9.1 overs.

McCoy started the slide by taking the wickets of Jack Davies and Andersson in his 11th over. Davies went for 14 runs, slicing high to deep cover, and Andersson went for one.

When John Simpson, slashing a back-foot force, was magnificently caught right-handed by a diving Wright at short third man to go for 2, Finn, with his first ball back, made it 113 for 5 at the start of the 13th over.

Cracknell did pick up Tymal Mills for six behind deep square leg after the 22-year-old had earlier plucked three fours from McCoy’s opening over to take Middlesex past 50 in the fifth over, but Mills accepted the caught and bowled later in the same 16th over after skipping an attempted big hit against a slower ball.

When McCoy returned for over number 17, Rawlins caught both Hollman (5) and Roland-Jones (1), first on the cover ropes and then running in from deep mid wicket, respectively.

Despite Green (22 not out) driving Mills for six and pulling him for four in a final over in which the bowler later took out non-striker and last man Behrendorff for two after blocking another Green drive – leaving two balls of the Middlesex innings unbowled – Middlesex were still well short of par.