Sussex dreams of reaching the C40 final at Lord's was crushed as they went down to a 71-run defeat against Surrey at The Oval.

Tom Maynard smashed 60 as Surrey set a huge total of 228-7 after winning the toss in a game reduced to 24 overs a side due to rain.

That proved far too many for Sussex despite the efforts of Ed Joyce (47) and Chris Nash (55)as they were bowled out for 157 with two overs to spare.

The start was delayed by three hours by rain and when it did get underway Sussex made the worse possible start as Ben Brown and Chris Nash dropped Rory Hamilton-Brown and Stephen Davies respectively.

Hamilton-Brown went on to make 24 and Davies 36 but it was Maynard who really laid the foundations for Surrey's big total.

He hit four sixes and two fours in his 33-ball innings while Zander de Bruyn kept the momentum going towards the end with 43 off 28 balls.

None of the Sussex bowlers escaped punishment but Chris Liddle was the pick with 4-38 from five overs while Monty Panesar took 2-34 from five.

Sussex lost Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin cheaply in reply before a partnership of 59 between Joyce and Nash raised their hopes briefly.

Joyce fell for 47 from 31 balls while Nash went for 55 off 39 balls but only Wayne Parnell managed to make it into double figures of the remaining Sussex batsmen.

He eventually went for 20 with Chris Schofield taking 4-22.