SKIPPER Luke Wright likened David Willey to Chris Gayle after he blew Sussex’s hopes of reaching NatWest T20 Blast finals day away at Hove last night.

The England all-rounder smashed exactly 100 from 41 balls to guide Northamptonshire to a seven-wicket win with 24 balls to spare. Willey took just 13 balls to go from his 50 to 100 – hitting ten sixes in the process – and Wright admitted he felt powerless to stop him.

The Sharks captain said: “It was a pretty special innings. I tried to chop and change the bowling but he had the answers to everything we tried.

"Unless I put fielders in the middle of Hove then there was nothing I could do. It was like watching Chris Gayle a bit and you can only congratulate him.

“It is hugely disappointing from our point of view but there is still lots for us to be proud of in this competition. We had two tough years leading up to this season and the goal was to get into big games like this.

“It hurts at the moment but memories of nights like this are what make you go away in the winter and put the work in to put things right for next time.”