Sean Hunt was the hero for Sussex Sharks as they defeated Kent Spitfires by seven wickets with 16 balls to spare.
Hunt had a hand in the first six wickets to fall as Kent were restricted to 133 for eight in their 20 overs. And his bowling figures of three for nine were the third most economical by a Sussex bowler after Robin Martin-Jenkins and current bowling coach James Kirtley, who both achieved their figures against Hampshire in 2004, only the second year of the competition.
Hunt, who also took three catches, looked out of sorts on Friday when, returning from a long injury lay-off, he made his Vitality Blast debut against Leicestershire and conceded 37 runs and bowled five wides.
This was a disappointing result for the Spitfires, who had won three out of four matches and had beaten Sussex by seven wickets at Canterbury two weeks earlier. The Sharks had also been beaten in their previous four fixtures.
Keith Dudgeon dismissed Harrison Ward with only the second ball of the innings when the Sharks embarked on their modest chase.
But John Simpson gave the innings impetus with seven fours in his 33 and Dan Hughes, supported by Jack Leaning and Oli Carter, played the anchor role with a 37-ball 41 not out to see his side home with comfort.
Hunt had Sussex a wonderful start with a double wicket maiden in only the third over of the match. First, he removed Daniel Bell-Drummond’s middle stump with a ball that shaped in and may have kept a little low.
Four balls later he had Zak Crawley caught by Tom Alsop at backward point for a duck. Crawley, with 75, was the man who had hurried the Spitfires to victory at Canterbury.
In the next over it was Hunt the fielder who struck, catching Kent captain Sam Billings at short fine-leg for a duck. At the end of the six-over powerplay Kent were 33 for three.
In the next over Hunt took his third wicket when he had former Sussex player Harry Finch caught at mid-off for 27 to make it 34 for four and the Spitfires had reached only 51 at the halfway stage of their innings.
A sensible partnership by Joe Denly and Chris Benjamin added fifty runs for the fifth wicket before Benjamin was caught by Hunt at short fine-leg off former Kent man Jack Leaning for 22. And in the next over it was 87 for six as Hunt – this time at backward-point – caught Grant Stewart off Danny Briggs.
Kent lost their seventh wicket at 106 and for the first time Hunt had nothing to do with it, Hughes taking the catch at long-off from the bowling of Sussex captain Tymal Mills to dismiss Denly off the last ball of the 17th over.
Denly’s 34-ball 42, with one four and two sixes, was a fine innings in the circumstances and some late blows by Dudgeon gave the Kent innings something close to respectability.
Sean Hunt (Sussex): “It couldn’t have gone any better for me than it did today. It hasn’t really sunk in yet. It’s a bit surreal. I just went out there and bowled.
“I’m so happy with how it went today and we won the match too, which is the important thing. The new ball was moving early and that suits my game. I stuck to my skills, stuck to the basics. It paid off massively.
“It was only my second T20 game. I had a few extras against me when I bowled on Friday. I cut that out today. But I still took some confidence from taking a couple of wickets in that game against Leicestershire. It was so important to have the skipper Tymal Mills giving me some advice through out the game.”
Sam Billings (Kent): “We got behind the eight-ball, as we did against Essex. We struggled in the powerplay and lost wickets. We had a bit of bad luck.
“It was tough going. We probably lacked a little bit of smartness through the middle overs. We could have got up to 140, 150 even 160. I think if we got 160 we would have been right in the game.
“It wasn’t quite there with the bat and we were always fighting against that. We made a positive start with the ball, with Dudgeon getting a quick wicket in the first over. And we felt we had wrestled back a bit of momentum now and again. But then we let it go again. It was disappointing today.”