Sussex and Middlesex squared off against each other in the T20 Blast 2023 at the iconic Lord’s cricket ground in London on Thursday (June 8). Sussex emerged victorious in the last-over thriller by four runs.
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, Sussex posted a competitive total of 181 runs for the loss of eight wickets in their allotted 20 overs. Tom Clark scored a well-constructed 39 off 28 deliveries for Sussex and was well-supported by Ravi Bopara (38). However, it was Shadab Khan‘s explosive innings of 59 off just 30 deliveries that powered Sussex to a competitive total. Shadab smashed four fours and five sixes during his entertaining knock. Meanwhile, Luke Hollman and Ryan Higgins picked two wickets each for Middlesex.
In reply, Middlesex fought hard but eventually fell four runs short of the target. Although Stephen Eskinazi played a magnificent innings for his team and hammered 94 runs off 62 deliveries, he unfortunately failed to get his team across the line, with Middlesex ending their innings at 177/5 in their 20 overs. Apart from Eskinazi, Pieter Malan and Jack Davies also added 36 and 19 runs, respectively. Notably, the important wicket of Davies came off a brilliant catch by Sussex’s James Coles on Nathan McAndrew‘s delivery, who claimed two wickets in the match.
On the fourth ball of the 19th over, McAndrew was smashed high in the sky by Davies, and the ball seemed to be going for a six until Coles ran across to his right at long-on and grabbed the white leather. Coles then realized he was very close to the boundary rope and tossed the ball up in the air before stepping over the boundary line. In the end, the Sussex fielder came back in quickly and successfully collected the rebound.
Here’s the video:
WOW!! 😱
James Coles, that is an utterly magnificent catch!#Blast23 pic.twitter.com/kxk5lQaJTd
— Vitality Blast (@VitalityBlast) June 8, 2023
Coming back to the match, Shadab was awarded the ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning knock of 59 runs.
