Sharks Bristol-bound for penultimate Blast group game

After Tuesday night’s demolition of Glamorgan, Sussex Sharks continue their quest for a Vitality Blast quarter-final spot with a trip to Bristol for their penultimate group match against Gloucestershire on Thursday (6.30pm start).

Luke Wright remains unavailable with a back injury and so head coach Jason Gillespie has named an unchanged 14-man squad with Danny Briggs at the helm.

Yesterday’s 98-run victory saw the Sharks leap-frog Surrey into fifth place after the same number of matches and puts the side just a point behind fourth-placed Glamorgan, over whom they have a game in hand.

Third-placed Kent Spitfires are now just two points ahead with two games remaining themselves.

The margin of Sussex’s victory over the Welshmen has given their net run-rate a significant boost as well.

Laurie Evans’ 63 not out off 47 balls was his fifth half-century in this year’s tournament and makes him the fourth highest scorer overall. He now has 454 runs from his nine innings, the fourth highest return in a T20 season for Sussex with at least two matches left to play.

That knock and cameos from Harry Finch, Delray Rawlins, Michael Burgess and Jofra Archer helped Sussex to 186-5 from their 20 overs, their highest total in 28 Blast matches and their highest score at The 1st Central County Ground since 2015.

Glamorgan were then blown away for just 88, with Rashid Khan recording his best figures of the tournament (3-9) to take his 2018 Blast haul to 14 wickets. Jofra Archer’s crucial dismissal of Colin Ingram took him to 14 wickets as well.

There were two wickets for Chris Jordan and one for Danny Briggs before Tymal Mills finished things off in spectacular style with the Sharks’ second Blast hat-trick in 13 days.

Sussex Sharks Squad

21. Danny Briggs (capt.)

22. Jofra Archer 

18. Will Beer

42. Tom Bruce 

5. Michael Burgess (wk.)

32. Laurie Evans

6. Harry Finch

8. Chris Jordan

1. Rashid Khan

7. Tymal Mills

9. Delray Rawlins

25. Ollie Robinson

28. Phil Salt

96. David Wiese

Opposition

Gloucestershire are one of two clubs to have already secured a place in the Blast knockout stages. Somerset are the other.

The Bristolians guaranteed their place in the last eight with a tense five-run home win over Surrey on Sunday.

That was their eighth win in twelve matches, a record that – alongside two no results - puts them in second place on 18 points with two matches to play. Somerset have two more points but have played an extra game.

Ten runs separate Gloucestershire’s top-scorers, with Ian Cockbain and Michael Klinger amassing 315 and 305 runs respectively. A total of four batsmen have scored more than 200 runs, with a fifth – Ryan Higgins – on 199.

Higgins is also one of four of the county’s bowlers with at least ten wickets in the tournament so far, a list led by David Payne who has 14.

Match Details & Coverage

The Vitality Blast match between Gloucestershire and Sussex Sharks at The Brightside Ground, Bristol on Thursday 16th August is scheduled to begin at 6.30pm. Tickets are available here.

You can follow the game on our Match Day Centre. This includes a live scorecard, live statistics, live text commentary from the @SussexCCC twitter feed and a link to ball-by-ball BBC Sussex radio commentary. BBC Sussex’s commentary will be live online from 6.30 and on FM and DAB from 7pm.

Follow the @SussexCCC Instagram and Snapchat channels for the best photos and videos from the evening.

Sussex Sharks v Middlesex - our final match in this year’s Vitality Blast south group - follows on Friday night at The 1st Central County Ground (6.30pm start). Remaining tickets are available to buy online HERE.