It was standing room only at Hove and Sussex did their bit to reward the biggest crowd at the County Ground for nearly four years with their third successive win in the Twenty20 Cup.

Their five wicket victory over Kent was not enough to secure a place on finals day at Trent Bridge next month. By the time Sussex began their reply after bowling out Kent for 114 they already knew that Leicestershire, Warwickshire, Surrey and Gloucestershire had gone through.

Not that a near 4,500 crowd who had shoehorned themselves into the old ground were too bothered.

As long as the ball disappears out of the arena or the stumps are flattened on a regular basis it seems a Twenty20 crowd are happy enough and there was plenty of that last night.

Sussex's bowlers did superbly to dismiss Kent for 114 with seven balls of their 20 overs unused but when they were quickly reduced to 6-2 in reply it appeared they might also struggle on a slow pitch.

Matthew Prior, dropped earlier in the first over by Mohammad Sami at mid on, chipped up Alamgir Sheriyar's slower ball to mid off and when Murray Goodwin missed a straight one from Matthew Dennington in the next over Sussex needed to rebuild.

They were a modest 14-2 at the start of the fifth over but the tempo changed from the moment skipper Chris Adams pulled a short ball from Dennington on to the roof of the office block on the pavilion side.

The burly Andrew Symonds, whose four overs against Surrey the previous evening had cost just 17 runs, had a horror show when he came on in the seventh over. He sent down four wides, including his first three deliveries, and when Adams swept him for six over square his solitary over had gone for 18, much to the amusement of a crowd who took great delight in seeing an Aussie struggling.

Zuiderent clouted James Tredwell over long on in the next over and Adams joined in the fun when he drove the ball back past Sami for a boundary that was all about brutal power and superb timing.

Kent's decision to hold back Sami, one of the quickest bowlers in world cricket, until the tenth over seemed strange in view of their need for quick wickets in defence of such a modest total.

By the time he came on Sussex's third wicket pair were firmly established and it needed a direct hit from Michael Carberry sprinting in from deep extra cover to end a stand of 80 in nine overs which effectively settled the outcome. Zuiderent's 42 came off just 32 balls with four boundaries.

Robin Martin-Jenkins had his first failure in the competition but when he chipped a catch to mid on off Mark Ealham in the 13th over Sussex only needed 14 to win.

Adams would have liked to have seen it through but he toe-ended an attempted pull off Sami after scoring 34 off 33 balls with three fours and those huge two sixes.

Kevin Innes brought the scores level with a thick edge of Sami which cleared the slips and bounced over third man's head into the crowd and there were 25 balls in hand when Ambrose scored the winning runs.

Kent begun their innings after David Fulton had won the toss with an even slimmer chance of reaching the last four than their hosts, but the start given to them by Symonds suggested they thought anything was possible.

After patting the first ball of the contest from Jason Lewry down the pitch, he collected three boundaries from the remaining five but Kent's night went rapidly downhill after that.

Tredwell, dropped by Tim Ambrose earlier in the second over, lost his leg stump to James Kirtley and Lewry got his revenge when he claimed the crucial wicket of Symonds after deceiving him with a slower ball.

Matthew Walker briefly made hay, hitting the clock at the top of the pavilion with an effortless pull off Lewry but that was the last boundary for four overs and Walker was caught behind off the next delivery.

Mark Ealham tried to hold the middle order together, top scoring with 22 including three fours before he holed out on the cover boundary, and Kent had lost four wickets in adding just nine runs when Ed Smith was run out by half the length of the pitch and Carberry flat-batted Mark Davis to short third man in the same over.

Mushtaq picked up a deserved second wicket when Dennington was caught behind as he pushed forward. Kent had lost six wickets for 34 in nine overs at that stage and at 83-8 they were in freefall. Fulton at least ensured his bowlers had something to defend, batting sensibly with Sami for four overs.

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