Sussex Sharks picked up their first victory of their T20 Blast campaign against Kent Spitfires thanks to Tom Alsop’s heroics with the bat by four runs, writes Joe Grant.

Alsop produced a brilliant knock of 65 off 30 balls, including six fours and three sixes on his T20 blast debut for Sussex after joining on loan from Hampshire in March.

Captain Ravi Bopara led the way with the ball taking two wickets for 23 runs from his four overs.

Bopara picked up the two key wickets of Joe Denly and Sam Billings who were building a dangerous partnership.

The former England international trapped Billings LBW for 31 and then had Denly caught on the boundary by sub fielder Oli Carter for 33, before the sides went off for a rain delay.

Sussex looked to be in trouble halfway through their innings after losing Mohammad Rizwan, Josh Philippe, Delray Rawlins and Bopara cheaply.

Alsop steadied the ship alongside George Garton to drag the hosts up to a defendable score of 171-5.

Luke Wright was back to his best at the top of the order, scoring 43 off 34 balls but missed out on his first half-century of the campaign, hitting a Qais Ahmad full-toss straight to the sub fielder at long-off.

The Sharks only brought up 100 runs in the 15th over after a slow start, but they managed to capitalise on the death overs to drag the run rate up.

Sussex picked up crucial early wickets that allowed them to control Kent’s scoring.

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Delray Rawlins bowled Daniel Bell-Drummond for a duck and Crawley gloved a short delivery from Steven Finn to Rizwan for two leaving Kent two wickets down for just three runs.

Some good death bowling from Tymal Mills and Steven Finn saw the Sharks over the line at the 1st Central County Ground.