Mike Yardy chose the perfect time to score his first one-day half-century of the season as Sussex took another step towards promotion in the totesport League at Hove last night.

The left-hander has so far failed to replicate his superb Championship form in the shorter form of the game but he put that right last night just when his side needed him most.

Sussex's three big guns, Ian Ward, Chris Adams and Murray Goodwin, as well as stand-in opener Tim Ambrose were all back in the pavilion with just 22 on the board as the Sharks made a wretched start in their pursuit of Kent's 155.

Yardy's previous best against a county attack this season was 16 but once he and Carl Hopkinson had seen off the new ball threat of Simon Cook, who claimed three of those prized toporder scalps, and South African Andrew Hall they grew in confidence.

Kent's decision to field four recognised bowlers was always a high-risk strategy and although Darren Stevens' medium-pacers were tidy enough, they had no one to support Cook and Hall who seamed the new ball around under the floodlights as much as the Sussex attack had done earlier in the day.

The Sussex pair ran like hares to turn ones into twos and punished the bad deliveries. The straight drive off Stevens which brought Hopkinson his first boundary was the shot of the day while Yardy scored six fours in his 66-ball half-century.

Their stand of 103 in 25 overs ended when Amjad Khan returned to knock out Hopkinson's off stump and the only disappointment was Yardy's failure to see the job through. He was bowled by Khan with the scores level but departed to a standing ovation.

His 65 came off 96 balls with six fours and Sussex's four-wicket win was secured with 21 balls to spare.

That represented a great recovery by the Sharks after Cook and Hall had made short work of their main men.

Martin van Jaarsveld took two excellent catches at slip, both off Cook, to remove Ambrose and Adams, Ward drove to mid-on off and Goodwin endured his first one-day duck of the season when Rob Ferley made good ground from backward square to get under a steepling mis-timed pull.

With the ball doing a lot and big shots few and far between, the contrast with the frenzied nature of Twenty20 cricket could not have been more marked.

The public certainly voted with their feet. In contrast to the full houses of recent weeks, the County Ground was less than half full yesterday, the mood suitably sombre after Thursday's events in London.

A minute's silence before play was impeccably observed.

Sussex's bowlers had made the most of helpful conditions as well to strangle the life out of Kent's batting.

David Fulton batted first after winning the toss and with the Kent captain, who opens in the Championship, coming at No. 7 it looked as if the Sharks would have their work cut out.

But such was their control that only four boundaries were scored after openers Hall and Rob Key had lodged four apiece in the first nine overs.

Rana Naved and James Kirtley revelled in the conditions. The Pakistani celebrated his competition debut by removing van Jaarsveld and Matthew Walker for ducks in the space of three deliveries and came back to bamboozle Niall O'Brien with what looked like an off spinner.

The only surprise was that Kirtley's exemplary control of line and length was not rewarded until the final over when he bowled Rob Ferley and Amjad Khan which leaves him on a hat-trick in Sussex's next game. Figures of 2-21, which took his season's haul to 18, didn't flatter him.

There were signs during the Twenty20 campaign, when he was Sussex's leading wicket-taker, that Mushtaq Ahmed had rediscovered his best form. He was at his teasing best last night, picking up the wickets of Michael Carberry and Stevens, the only recognised batsman who looked capable of dragging Kent out of the mire.

Sussex's fielding was again of a high standard. Mushtaq ran out Hall with a bullet throw running in from the third man boundary and Luke Wright, who had the satisfaction of removing Key, produced a stop to prevent Cook from finding a boundary which typified their tigerish display.

Cook, a player Sussex tried to sign last winter, and O'Brien put on 36 in 12 overs to take Kent past 150 but it was never going to be enough once their lack of bowling depth had been exposed by Yardy and Hopkinson.

July 9, 2005