Tonight’s crunch match against Kent on course for sell-out

Tonight’s crucial Vitality Blast fixture at The 1st Central County Ground is set to be a sell-out.

As of Friday morning, fewer than 250 seats remained for Sussex Sharks’ vital encounter with fellow qualification hunters, Kent Spitfires (7pm start).

Ultimately frustrated by the weather on Thursday night at the Kia Oval, the Sharks nonetheless go into tonight’s match on a high having smashed Surrey’s attack to all parts on their way to 159-2 in 13 overs.

Before lightning cauterised the evening, Sussex captain Luke Wright reached his third fifty of this year’s tournament, while Laurie Evans continued his fine form with an unbeaten 48 off 24 balls.

Phil Salt (33 off 14 balls) and Delray Rawlins (20 not out off 11) also made forceful contributions.

The forecast for tonight is more promising, with daytime rain giving way to clearer skies this evening.

Sussex are one of six sides engaged in a furious battle to get out of the south group. With four games remaining, the Sharks sit in sixth place, two points behind Kent and Glamorgan in third and fourth respectively.

Sussex head coach, Jason Gillespie will select from the same 14-man squad that made the trip to South London last night.

Sussex Sharks Squad

10. Luke Wright (c)

22. Jofra Archer 

18. Will Beer

21. Danny Briggs

42. Tom Bruce 

5. Michael Burgess (wk)

32. Laurie Evans

8. Chris Jordan

1. Rashid Khan

7. Tymal Mills

9. Delray Rawlins

25. Ollie Robinson

28. Phil Salt

96. David Wiese

Opposition

Kent Spitfires have won five of their ten games so far and, like the Sharks, have had three abandonments. Both their defeats came at the hands of high-flying Gloucestershire.

Joe Denly is both Kent’s top-scorer and their leading wicket-taker. The right-handed opening batsmen and leg-spin bowler has 321 runs and 13 wickets from his nine appearances so far.

Overseas player, Marcus Stoinis – who scored a century for Australia against the Sharks at The 1st Central County Ground earlier this season – is missing from the Kent squad with a hamstring injury. Seamer, Mitch Claydon joins him on the physio bed with a groin issue.

Kent Spitfires squad: 7 Sam Billings (c/wk), 23 Daniel Bell-Drummond, 10 Alex Blake, 16 Zak Crawley, 6 Joe Denly, 58 Sean Dickson, 25 Calum Haggett, 4 Heino Kuhn, 20 Adam Milne, 1 Harry Podmore, 11 Imran Qayyum, 9 Grant Stewart, 17 Marcus Stoinis, 5 Ivan Thomas, 8 Mitch Claydon.

Match Details and Coverage

Tonight’s match at The 1st Central County Ground gets underway at 7pm. Subject to availability, tickets are available to buy online via the Print@Home service until gates open at 5.30pm.

If any tickets remain at this point, these will be available to purchase at the ground subject to a £5 surcharge.

Supporters who are unable to attend tonight’s match, can watch every ball live with BBC Sussex commentary via the live stream on our Match Day Centre. This also includes a live scorecard, live statistics and text commentary from the @SussexCCC twitter feed.

Sussex Cricket would like to thank tonight’s match sponsor, Aerotron, for their support.