Twenty20 quarter-finals may be unchartered territory for Sussex but they will fancy their chances against anyone if they can reproduce the performance which blew away Hampshire Hawks.

A full-house of 7,000 created a terrific atmosphere and they revelled in what turned out to be a crushing 73-run victory over Sussex's old rivals.

The Sharks posted their first total of more than 200 in the competition's history thanks mainly to another sensational display of power hitting by Luke Wright, their find of the tournament so far.

The 22-year-old all-rounder took his aggregate to 300 runs but agonisingly fell two runs short of what would have been his second century this season. Remember, too, that in three of the seven games so far he has made a combined total of four runs.

The Hawks made a decent start to their run chase and were level after four overs.

But they were stymied in mid-innings by another outstanding performance from Sussex's two spinners.

Mushtaq Ahmed and Saqlain Mushtaq each picked up two wickets with Saqlain removing top scorer Michael Brown and Chris Benham with successive balls.

Greg Lamb kept out the hat-trick ball but Saqlain's 2-22 was another encouraging step forward in what was only his second first-team appearance.

James Kirtley did even better with three wickets in four balls but, with due respect to the bowlers, it was Wright's pyrotechnics which the crowd will remember most.

This was arguably a better innings than the 103 he made against Kent last week when, by his own admission, fortune was on his side more than once. Coming in halfway through the third over after Chris Nash had given Sussex the ideal start with 15 off nine balls, he dominated a stand of 107 from just 58 balls with Murray Goodwin.

Wright hit nine fours and six sixes which means he has now cleared the rope 16 times. No one in a mediocre Hampshire attack without Shane Warne, Shaun Udal and Chris Tremlett was spared.

His half-century came off 27 balls with 36 of the runs coming in boundaries including a huge six over mid-wicket which bounced off the walls of the apartment block beyond the hospitality tents. Another had to be retrieved from the service road surrounding the ground.

Goodwin sensed the mood and was the ideal foil, giving his partner as much of the strike as he could while punishing the bad balls. His 45 came off just 32 deliveries and it was a surprise when he chipped up a return catch to Adam Voges.

The Australian also ran out Chris Adams with a direct hit from mid off but there seemed to be no stopping Wright. His sixth maximum only just cleared long on and perhaps it was fatigue which betrayed him in the end. Attempting a similar stroke off James Bruce, he was held ten yards inside the boundary.

Wright departed to a standing ovation from the packed house and it was nice to see so many of his opponents applauding a sensational performance which must surely get him in the frame for the Twenty20 World Cup in September.

Carl Hopkinson produced a busy little cameo at the end as hapless Hampshire conceded their second-biggest total in Twenty20 history.

Brown and Voges gave the reply a decent start but Voges missed a straight one in Kirtley's first over and the required rate was soon climbing to more than ten runs an over.

Between them Mushtaq and Saqlain had combined figures of 4-46 and for once it wasn't Mushtaq who had the crowd on their feet. Wright pulled off a spectacular catch as he ran in from the long on boundary to remove top scorer Brown and Hodd pulled off his second easy stumping of the night when Benham came down the pitch to the next ball from Saqlain.

It was left to Kirtley to top and tail the innings with three wickets in four balls. Jimmy Adams mis-cued to mid off, Michael Carberry picked out mid on with the next delivery and James Bruce had his orange stumps re-arranged in Kirtley's next over.

A week ago Sussex's Twenty20 future looked bleak after their 100-runs humiliation against Surrey. But since then they have reeled off three great wins while Surrey have failed to qualify for the finals for the first time in Twenty20 history after losing to Kent last night.

And if Sussex can produce this sort of performance in the quarter-final skipper Adams has every chance of filling another gap on his Sussex CV by leading his side at finals day for the first time.

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