Sussex’s hopes of reaching the quarter-finals of the NatWest T20 Blast suffered a potentially fatal blow as they went down to a heavy defeat in front of a crowd of 22,601 at the Oval last night.

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.

But with Ross Taylor having finished his stint with Sussex their batting was found severely 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.

That was never going to be enough and Surrey cruised to a six-wicket win with ten balls to spare which pulled them level with Sussex on 12 points.

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 were given a strong start in their chase of Sussex’s below-par total by England opener Jason Roy, who made 36 off 25 balls, hitting six fours and a six.

Roy looked in the mood but was becalmed by slow left-armer Danny Briggs who came on in the powerplay and bowled Roy in his second over as the batsman slogged across the line.

Roy’s opening partner Aaron Finch had gone in the third over, caught at backward point off a huge top edge to give Jofra Archer, the Barbados-born fast bowler playing only his third game in the competition, the first of two wickets.

But Dominic Sibley and Rory Burns were determined not to squander Surrey’s good start. The third-wicket pair added 42 in 27 balls and although Burns (13) was superbly caught at long leg by the diving Mustafizur Rahman, Sibley made a composed 40 off 31 deliveries with three sixes and a four to put his side in control.

He was athletically caught by Sussex captain Luke Wright at extra cover in the 15th over, but Surrey required just 38 runs at that stage and Morris (20) and Ben Foakes (22) eased them to their sixth win of the group stage.

Sussex, who had been put in, were 15-20 runs short in the end. With four overs to go they were 135-3 but Jade Dernbach and Tom Curran bowled superbly at the death, taking three wickets as Sussex cobbled together just 18 more runs.

Craig Cachopa and Matt Machan had put on 51 in 31 balls for the fourth wicket but they fell off successive Dernbach deliveries in the 19th over.

Machan (18) top-edged a pull and Cachopa was held at long on for 45 (34 balls, 7 fours) while Chris Jordan gave Curran a deserved wicket when he holed out to deep mid-wicket in the final over.

Sussex were without fast bowler Tymal Mills because of ankle trouble and their leading run-scorer in this season’s Twenty20 competition Taylor, who has joined up with New Zealand for their tour of South Africa.

In Taylor’s absence they needed experienced openers Chris Nash and Luke Wright to perform and although Nash played well for his 39 from 34 balls, Sussex captain Wright was out for just seven.

Surrey’s seamers showed good control with Dernbach taking 2-25, Morris 2-21 and Tom Curran 1-20.