Heartbreak for Sussex

And what heartbreak for Sussex at the end of this rain-affected, last-ball thriller.

Sussex, having looked second favourites when man-of-the-match Ali Brown fired a 28-ball 50 for Surrey, eventually lost by five wickets under the Duckworth/Lewis method as the clock ticked on to 10.30pm at the end of an extraordinary night.

Azhar Mahmood drove 16 runs off the last three balls after a mid-innings collapse had left Surrey needing 14 off the last over, delivered by Mike Yardy.

Yardy, bowling the left arm spin he honed in sparsely populated games in the Sussex League, conceded just two singles from his first three balls of the over to Mahmood and Ian Salisbury before Mahmood's huge six over long-on put Surrey back on course.

He followed that with a four through the covers and, with two required off the last delivery, drove straight down the ground.

Hectic stuff, high on drama, but that is Twenty20 cricket for you.

Those long, lazy afternoons when a few dozen members bask idly in deckchairs seemed a world away last night as 5,500 cold, wet fans roared and sang Sussex back into the contest under the Hove lights.

And that's not to mention the spectacle of Chris Adams arriving by helicopter or a nine-man RAF parachute display team keeping the crowd happy after torrental rain held up play by almost an hour.

This is a different world and one Surrey used to dominate until Leicestershire beat them in last year's final.

Surrey want their title back and snatched the win they needed despite a Sussex revival sparked by Luke Wright's dismissal of Wroght when they were cantering at 74-1 with 40 needed off 32 balls.

Murray Goodwin and Adams claimed run outs with great fielding, Mushtaq Ahmed capped a remarkable spell of bowling by getting a thin edge off Scott Newman and suddenly the game was alive.

Mahmood and Salisbury, though, just about finished the job, though the latter was close to being caught by Ian Ward in the penultimate over.

Sussex might feel they could have scored more than the 139-6 to their name when torrential rain forced the players off the pitch three overs from the scheduled interval.

They were 28-0 off ten balls and Prior made 51 off 32 balls, including six fours and a pulled six off Jimmy Ormond.

Expectation had built throughout the afternoon.

Enthusiasts turning up just after lunchtime were told all advanced tickets had gone and to try and snap up some of the remaining 500 when gates opened.

Quite a build-up and the start of the action was suitably explosive.

Ian Ward was dropped by a diving James Benning and sent two inside edges past the stumps for four before being superbly picked up by Ricky Clarke at gully.

Adams had some luck when a leading edge off Tim Murtagh just eluded an irate Ormond.

There was no need for the master of ceremonies to play Don't Look Back In Anger though when Adams was stumped in the next over. He was well out of his ground having given Nayan Doshi the charge as Surrey turned to spin.

Prior eventually perished at long-on, just after completing his third Twenty20 half-century in four innings, but there was no drop in the scoring rate as Murray Goodwin and Mike Yardy combined.

For a couple of minutes it rained sixes as Goodwin pulled Harbhajan Singh and Doshi. Then it just rained leaving Surrey needing 114 off 13 overs. They got there but only just.

Tomorrow evening's game agaist Hampshire at Hove is a sell-out.

June 30, 2005