New boy Yasir Arafat believes Sussex can reproduce their C&G Trophy success in the Twenty20 Cup.

The county have never reached the knockout stages since Twenty20 started in 2003.

But Sussex are playing their best one-day cricket for years after reaching their first Lord's final since 1993.

Now Arafat, who makes his competition debut against Hampshire at Arundel tonight (5.30), says there is no reason why they cannot go all the way.

He said: "I was surprised when someone told me we had never reached finals day or even got through to the knockout stage in the previous three seasons of Twenty20.

"There's no reason why that shouldn't change. If you look at our side we have batsmen like Matt Prior, Murray Goodwin and Chris Adams who are all top players who can win a game for you on their own.

"Also, I think we have a very balanced attack, which is important.

"Hopefully James Kirtley and I can get early wickets and we have guys like Mushtaq Ahmed who use their experience, take the pace off the ball and make the batsmen work for every run."

Sussex have included two other players making their Twenty20 debuts - off-spinner Ollie Rayner and Sean Heather - in their 12-man squad. Skipper Adams is confident he has the right blend of youth and experience.

He said: "The game isn't long enough to have any sort of game plan - you just rely on your exciting batsmen and, when it comes to bowling, on the bits-and-pieces players who take the pace off the ball and offer some variation.

"The good thing is that everyone is desperate to play in these games. They are great fun and there is a finals day to aim for. We were a bit unlucky with the weather last season. If things run kindly for us then we should be looking to make the knockout stages at least."