Brown Caps staring elimination in the face after Hove horror

Surrey's hopes of making it to the knockout stages of this season's Twenty20 Cup were hanging by a thread after the Brown Caps were thrashed by Sussex on Monday night.

The Sharks eased past Surrey's well below par total of 123 all out, winning by six wickets with more than three overs to spare.

Having chosen to bat Surrey's innings never got any momentum as their batsmen were tied down by a quartet of Sussex spinners.

But it was Robin Martin-Jenkins who broke the back of the Surrey batting with three wickets in his new-ball spell.

Scott Newman, Mark Ramprakash, Matt Spriegel and Stuart Walters all made starts but failed to go on and make a significant score.

The latter two scoring at well below a run a ball as the home side turned the screw.

It was only because of some impressive swinging from Chris Schofield and Andre Nel that Surrey got the score up to the level they did.

In reply openers Murray Goodwin (38) and Luke Wright (31) laid the foundations with a stand of 71 as the home side reached their target in 16.4 overs.

Reprising the role he had enjoyed during England's World Cup campaign, Wright belted three successive balls from Chris Jordan through the off side on his way to 31 from 26 balls before being stumped after giving Usman Afzaal the charge.

Matt Prior was then trapped by Chris Schofield in the leg-spinner's third over and Stewart Walters yorked Goodwin to claim a notable first Twenty20 scalp after the Zimbabwean had top-scored with 38 off 43 balls, including six fours.

But Dwayne Smith, who belted one straight six out of the ground, hit the winning boundary with 19 balls to spare.