T20 Blast: Sussex beat Glamorgan by 33 runs

Luke Wright and Welsh-born Phil Salt made a partnership of 144 against Glamorgan

A superb opening stand of 144 between Luke Wright and Phil Salt took Sussex to a 33-run win over Glamorgan to keep their T20 quarter-final hopes alive.

Captain Wright (77) and Salt (63) steered Sussex to 201-8.

David Lloyd top-scored with 51 in Glamorgan's pursuit as they reached 168 all out, 16 year old leg-spinner Archie Lenham taking four for 26.

The two teams also meet in the Championship at Hove, starting on Sunday.

Glamorgan and Sussex were both without leading players because of Covid-related absences, but that did not worry the experienced Wright and North Walian, England hopeful Salt as they played a full range of expansive shots.

Wright blasted 11 fours and a six, facing just 41 balls, while Salt was almost as rapid with nine fours and a six in his 35-ball knock.

Both fell in the same over from Dan Douthwaite, who finished with the fine figures of 3-28 amid the run riot.

Travis Head chipped in with 26 but the rest of the batting failed to cash in on the huge platform as Roman Walker also claimed three wickets.

A target of 10.1 runs an over looked formidable but Lloyd and Kiran Carlson (22) made a flying start before Carlson holed out off Ravi Bopara and Colin Ingram was run out after a mix-up.

Lloyd, after reaching his first half-century of the campaign, then smashed a full-toss from Lenham to backward square leg and the visitors looked well on top.

Douthwaite briefly revived home hopes, bludgeoning one blow out of the ground and another onto the top balcony of the pavilion with four sixes in his 35.

He too fell to Lenham who could do no wrong as he followed up by taking a steepling catch to dismiss Sam Pearce as Glamorgan went down swinging, Bopara and David Wiese cleaning up the tail.

But Sussex saw pace bowler Tymal Mills tweak a hamstring while Bopara also hobbled off, and it was revealed that Salt has been playing with a broken finger.

Sussex captain Luke Wright told BBC Sussex Sport:

"We felt it was a timid batting performance against Middlesex so coming here, I said 'I'm not going to die wondering tonight', we wanted to go more aggressive, throw the first punch and that's what we did.

"We started so well in the competition but those (five) rained-off games take a bit of momentum off, so this was a big moment.

"It's in our hands now with three to go, Rashid Khan will come in most likely for the last two games, and we'll get Chris Jordan (groin injury) and George Garton back as well."

Archie Lenham added:

"It's pretty amazing really, at the start of the season I never thought this would be happening.

"It was an incredible experience to play at Lord's, the home of cricket (the previous night), really cool to walk out there and had a bowl and a bat.

"I'm just trying to bowl my way and pick up wickets for the side, I was just trying to keep the run-rate down against Douthwaite and hoping he might try to go big and get caught."

Glamorgan top scorer David Lloyd told BBC Sport Wales:

"It was a tricky chase after their innings, we got off to a really good start but lost wickets at important times.

"Salt and Wright are very good players who can do that to a lot of opposition sides, though we showed character to drag it back.

"It's been very disappointing for us, we've shown signs of what we can do and some fight, but it's been one performance that's got us over the line (in the wins) and we need to all contribute as a team.

"You can't rely on individual performances though they can help, but things haven't really clicked and missing Marnus (Labuschagne) has been a big blow."