da bet sport： Sussex have all but guaranteed a place in the knockout stages of the Benson & Hedges Cupafter easing to a five-wicket win over Kent at Hastings
da leao： Bruce Talbot06-May-2001Sussex have all but guaranteed a place in the knockout stages of the Benson & Hedges Cupafter easing to a five-wicket win over Kent at Hastings.Seamer Mark Robinson took 4-29, his best figures in the competition, as Kent were bowled outfor 174 before Sussex’s middle order batsmen all made vital contributions to see their sidehome with ten balls to spare.A desperately slow pitch yielded runs grudgingly and although Kent openers Matthew Fleming andRobert Key put on 43 in ten overs, the visitors lost wickets regularly after that with too manyof their batsmen playing the wrong shots on the sluggish surface.Matthew Walker, who scored a century against Essex earlier in the competition, held the inningstogether with 51 off 76 balls, but Robinson returned to take three wickets in nine deliveriesas Kent lost their last five batsmen for 24 runs.Sussex paced their run chase well, but there were some scares along the way. The departures ofRichard Montgomerie and Murray Goodwin at 73-2 in the 27th over exposed an inexperienced middleorder, but Bas Zuiderent (40) and Will House, who made 35 against his old club, produced thebest batting of the day in a fifth-wicket stand of 61 in 13 overs.Zuiderent was run out by Walker’s direct hit from extra cover and House was bowled by MarkEalham with 30 still needed, but Umer Rashid and Robin Martin-Jenkins chiselled out an unbrokenpartnership of 32 to see their side home, Martin-Jenkins winning the match with a six oversquare leg off David Masters.James Kirtley, leading Sussex in the absence of the injured Chris Adams, praised his team’sperformance. He said: “We can’t rely on the big guns because the big guns aren’t playing at themoment, but we produced an excellent team performance and our middle order showed a lot ofmaturity when we had to chase a difficult target.”
