Luke Wright entered the 2021 Vitality Blast in style tonight.

The Sussex Sharks skipper made a stunning 75 off 44 balls as his side eased to a seven-wicket victory over Essex Eagles at Chelmsford.

The Blast’s all-time leading run-scorer missed the opening two rounds after splitting the webbing in his hand while practising fielding on the eve of the competition.

But he made up for lost time by bringing up his 50 in 33 deliveries as Sussex chased down Essex’s below-par 128-8 with 36 balls to spare.

Sharks have won three out of three in the South Group.

Wright looked at home right from the start, with boundaries from his second and third deliveries – two of eight fours.

Opening partner Phil Salt was run out for 13, after putting on 54 with Wright, before Travis Head added 60 together with the skipper.

Wright continued to his 26th Blast half-century, going past 8,000 T20 career runs, with a pair of straight sixes and another over cow corner.

He departed with six still needed but Delray Rawlins clattered the winning runs over long-off soon after.

Wright’s day had started perfectly as he won the toss and stuck the hosts in – although Will Buttleman struck successive sixes in the fourth over.

On a used hybrid pitch, scoring proved difficult for Essex with only Buttleman, Michael Pepper and Jimmy Neesham’s strike-rates topping 100, for those who reached double figures.

The strain on scoring was exemplified by the last over of the powerplay, which saw just one run, as Paul Walter struggled to lay a bat on Chris Jordan – the run-rate throughout the innings hovering just below seven an over.

To add to the Eagles’ woes, wickets were a regular occurrence.

Tom Westley and Buttleman fell in the powerplay – the former picking out deep mid-wicket off George Garton and the latter slapping a Tymal Mills slower ball to cover.

SCORECARD

Walter was stumped, Ryan ten Doeschate clubbed old pal Ravi Bopara to long off, Pepper – having scored 38 off 25 balls – drilled to extra cover, Simon Harmer miscued to mid-wicket, Jack Plom skied to mid-off and Neesham was comprehensively bowled.

Garton ended up with 3-31, with Mills’ 2-21, Jordan’s 1-21 and Bopara’s 1-17 all going at under a run-a-ball.