Josh de Caires struck seven fours and five sixes in his unbeaten 80.

Vitality Blast, County Ground, Hove
Middlesex 213-4 (20 overs): De Caires 80*, Holden 77; Mills 3-31
Sussex 182 (19.4 overs): Alsop 43; Helm 3-41

Middlesex beat Sussex by 31 runs. Middlesex won their first T20 Blast match of the season with an impressive display against Sussex at Hove, with the home side replacing them at the bottom of the South group table.

Middlesex scored a challenging 213-4, propelled by a 41-ball 77 by opener Max Holden, who hit five sixes and six fours. Opening partner Adam Rossington had fallen in the fourth over, cramped by the pace of Tymal Mills; he played a short-arm hook to deep backward square-leg.

But left-hander Holden was in fine form and raised the fifty in the sixth over when he guided a Mills delivery to the third man boundary. He put on 95 for the second wicket with Joshua De Caires, who made his maiden Blast fifty and went on to score an unbeaten 80 from 44 deliveries, with five sixes and seven fours.

And when Holden holed out in the deep, the ball after striking Danny Briggs for his final six, captain Leus du Plooy added 65 for the third wicket with De Caires to put Sussex on the back foot. The Sussex bowling attack missed Ollie Robinson and Henry Crocombe – called up by England and England Lions respectively. Mills, who took three wickets, bowled well, and sometimes with real pace, but apart from the experienced Briggs, whose four overs cost just 33 runs, the other Sussex bowlers were expensive.

Sussex opener Tom Clark was injured in the field. But he had shown such form in the previous game against Kent that he opened with Jack Carson running for him. And, virtually batting on one leg, he gave Sussex the start they wanted, with two massive sixes and four fours in a 13-ball 31 before he was caught behind off Tom Helm.

Opening partner Dan Hughes had fallen in the previous over and when John Simpson drilled spinner Luke Hollman to long-off from the first delivery following the power play, a disappointing stroke, Sussex were faltering at 65-3 in the seventh over. James Coles was not at his most fluent, and was almost caught three times, but some big-hitting by Tom Alsop kept the required rate below 13 an over. Alsop had hit 43 from a partnership of 67 with Coles when his 24-ball innings came to an end, caught at long-off off De Caires.

Sussex were only marginally behind the rate but they kept losing wickets. Coles, whose 33 occupied 27 deliveries, was fifth out at 143 and when Danny Lamb was lbw for a single three balls later Sussex had lost three wickets for 13 runs and the run-rate had spiked up, with 69 needed from the final five overs.

It was too much for Sussex's lower order and, under intense scoreboard pressure, they were bowled out for 182, losing their last seven wickets for 50 runs.

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