Sussex lost by six wickets as Kent chased down a below-par 170 from 18.4 overs in the T20 Vitality Blast, writes Piyush Singh.

Despite a valiant bowling effort from Sussex, Jordan Cox’s unbeaten 82 from just 44 deliveries was enough to see the away team come victorious.

They also had a brilliant bowling display from Michael Hogan, whose 4-31 from his four overs helped Kent to restrict Sussex to a 169-7 from their 20 overs.

England international Tymal Mills spoke his heart out at the post-match.

He said: “We have been very poor. We have spoken about it a lot. We have lost players (due to injuries) but as a whole, we have been way off where we thought we would be.

“We have had to rotate the team a lot due to a combination of injuries and poor performance.

“We have seen pretty much everybody and there are not too many guys that haven’t had a game and certainly been a good realisation for the guys who hadn’t played as much coming into the year maybe just how far they are in terms of T20 cricket.”

Sharks were off to a steady start after they opted to bat as they ended the powerplay at 49-1. Harrison Ward 32(21) was sent back to the pavilion by Hogan after a promising start.

Sharks scored at a decent rate through the middle overs which saw them reach 100-3 in the 13th over. All players bar skipper Ravi Bopara got off to a start but failed to convert.

Tom Clark 22(21) screamed in fury as he cut one straight into the hands of George Linde off the bowling of Grant Stewart. Oliver Carter failed to build on his impressive knock in the previous game as he was dismissed for 19 from 14 deliveries.

Tom Alsop 12(9) and George Garton 13(8) were dismissed cheaply as the home team was reduced to 153-5 from 17.3 overs.

Bopara 53(38) held one end firmly for the Sharks as he smashed a brilliant half-century before he was caught in the deep in the last over.

Sussex kept losing wickets at regular intervals as a reason they failed to up the ante towards the backend of the innings and managed to set a target of just 170.

Hogan outshone everyone else with the ball for Kent. Fred Klassen, Wes Agar, and Stewart picked up a wicket each.

Sussex impressed with the new ball once again as they struck thrice inside the first four overs.

Aristides Karvelas cleaned up Tawanda Muyeye and three balls later Joe Denly edged a beauty of a delivery to the keeper before Mills got rid of the dangerous Sam Billings in a similar fashion as Kent finished their powerplay at 46-3.

Kent fought their way back in the game with a solid partnership between Daniel Bell-Drummond and Cox before Bopara got rid of the former as they threatened to take the game away from Sussex. Kent reached 100-4 in the 12th over.

Cox continued his tremendous batting display and finished the game with consecutive sixes for Kent. Jack Leaning played a supporting knock of 28* from 26 deliveries.

Sharks only managed to scalp one wicket outside the powerplay. Star performer from the last game Bradley Currie was taken for 0-26 from just two overs. Mills finished his spell for 1-29.

On speaking about if Mills would fancy playing in the Major League Cricket he said: "Yeah, I’m free. I’ve got no cricket in July.”