Sussex were battered by 124 runs as Surrey recorded their highest-ever T20 score and the fourth-highest in the Vitality Blast, writes Piyush Singh.

The visitors posted a colossal 258-6 from 20 overs at the 1st Central County Ground.

A tremendous batting display from Laurie Evans and Sam Curran set the stage for Surrey to reach a record total.

Contrasting emotions on display after a last-ball win at Lord's 24 hours earlier, head coach Paul Farbrace said: “Very ordinary bowling tonight. The thing that disappoints me the most is the lack of nous the way we bowled. We have got so much to learn in terms of our bowling.

“In terms of batting, we had no option, we had to go out and play the way we did.”

The decision to win the toss and elect to bowl looked to have paid off for the Sharks as Nathan McAndrew clean-bowled Will Jacks in the very first over.

However, Evans and Sam Curran looked in no mood to give their wickets away as the pair added 157 from just 77 deliveries for the third wicket.

They finished the powerplay strongly at 54-1 before some relentless hitting in the middle overs which saw Surrey reach 150 at the end of the 13th over.

Both Evans and Curran took the bowlers to the cleaners. Curran smashed 68 from just 35 deliveries before the allrounder was caught on the edge of the circle as he sliced a wide delivery from Shadab Khan.

Evans missed out on a well-deserved century as the opener was caught on long on for 93(51) off the bowling of Henry Crocombe. The damage was already done as Surrey amassed 200 in the 16th over.

Apart from wicketkeeper Jamie Smith, who was dismissed for a golden duck, all the other batters scored with a strike rate in excess of 200.

Jamie Overton 22(11) and Tom Curran 29(9) did the bulk of the scoring towards the end as Surrey set a mammoth target of 259.

A dismal bowling card for the home team showed no bowler going under 10s.

Tymal Mills was taken for 2-50 from his four overs while Khan was smashed for 1-43 from just three.

Sussex were once again in double figures with the extras conceded (15).

Farbrace said: “We had eleven balls where we had to have an extra fielder in because we were past the cut-off time.

“It’s a consistent theme I am talking about after every T20 game.

"As much as you want to defend the players they’ve also got to help themselves.

"They’ve got to learn and we are not learning quickly enough and we are being taught lessons. At some point, we have got to learn those lessons.”

Sussex hit the ground running scoring 64-2 in the powerplay thanks to Tom Clark’s innings of 43 from 23 before he was stumped off the bowling of Will Jacks in the final over of the powerplay. Jacks had already dismissed his partner James Coles 4(3) in the second over.

Despite a decent start the home team never looked in contention and lost their way in the middle overs as the majority of the batters gifted their wicket to the opposition bowling.

Skipper Ravi Bopara 1(5) skied one off the bowling of Sunil Narine and was caught by the keeper. Tom Alsop missed a waist-high full toss as he was bold. Khan 9(7) looked indecisive as he lost his footing trying to make connection with a wide delivery and ended up giving Jacks an easy catch as the Sharks were reduced to 82-5 in the 9th over.

Narine and Cameron Steel cleaned up the lower order and the tail cheaply as Sussex were bowled out for 134 from 14.5 overs.

The next highest run-getter for Sharks after Clark’s 43 was 17 from Alsop and Daniel Ibrahim each.

Narine was the pick of the bowlers with 3-12 from his 2.5 overs and Steel finished with 3-41 from his four. Jacks and Tom Lawes picked up a couple of wickets each.