Sussex slipped to their second defeat in a row in the NatWest T20 Blast at the hands of some brutal batting from Mark Pettini and Tom Westley.

The pair put on 99 in 72 balls for the second wicket as Essex cruised to a seven-wicket win with 20 balls to spare.

Mahela Jayawardene had top scored for Sussex with 53 but had found little support as the Sharks were restricted to 140-9.

Essex made short work of chasing down that total with Westley blasting 47 from 42 balls and Pettini finishing unbeaten on Luke Wright and Chris Nash got Sussex’s innings off to an encouraging start as they put on 41 from 29 balls for the first wicket.

The Sharks lost all momentum, however, when Wright was caught behind slashing at Shaun Tait for 20.

Nash followed soon after when he slapped a long hop from Reece Topley straight to the fielder at mid-wicket having made 22.

Jayawardene saw Craig Cachopa, Matt Machan, Ben Brown, Will Beer and Mike Yardy all come and go without making an impact in the face of some excellent bowling from Essex.

Ravi Bopara was the pick of the bunch for the Eagles with 2-19 while Tait took 3-29, Topley 2-29 and David Masters’ four overs went for just 21 runs.

Sussex’s hopes of setting a competitive total rested on Jayawardene with the Sri Lankan star completing his first 50 for Sussex from 38 balls – five fours and a six – before being run out for 53 off the final ball of the innings.

The Sharks needed to keep it tight if they were to defend a total of 140-9 but Jesse Ryder smashed Tymal Mills for two sixes in his first over.

Mills got revenge by bowling Ryder with a slower ball for 14 but Mark Pettini and Tom Westley proved harder to shift as they eased Essex towards their target with few problems.

Westley smashed Yardy for 15 from his first over to keep the Eagles well ahead of the asking rate while Pettini lofted Beer out of the ground as the boundaries which proved so elusive for Sussex came freely for the visitors.

Both missed out on the half centuries they deserved with Westley falling for 47 to a brilliant catch by Wright while Pettini holed out off Chris Liddle for 48.

The pair had done their job by that point and Bopara and Nick Browne were left with the simple task of finishing things off.