Luke Wright produced an incredible innings as he smashed an unbeaten 153 from 66 balls to lead Sussex to a seven-wicket triumph over a shell-shocked Essex side at Chelmsford tonight.

It represented a world record run chase and the highest ever individual score in domestic Twenty20 cricket, eclipsing the unbeaten 152 by Graham Napier when the sides met on the same ground six years ago.

Wright's astonishing effort contained 12 fours and 11 sixes, the last of which came off Napier to equal his mark, and he followed it up by pushing the all-rounder for a single to set a new record.

Sussex looked down and out in the face of a daunting target of 226 when they arrived at the five-over mark with only 48 on the board and two wickets down.

They lost another soon afterwards, that of Harry Finch, but then Matt Machan joined Wright in a partnership that yielded 159 runs in 12.1 overs.

Wright had a packed crowd taking evasive action as he repeatedly sent the ball into orbit, with none of Essex's six bowlers able to stem the flow of runs.

Wright's heroics came after Chris Nash was bowled by David Masters without a run on the board and Napier had breached the defences of Craig Cachopa with the total on 14.

Essex must have thought then that they were poised for an easy triumph but the brilliant Wright had other ideas. Machan was content to play the supporting role in the unbroken fourth-wicket stand, although his 41 came from only 26 balls.