Liam Dawson & Tristan Stubbs rescue Hampshire

Sussex skipper Tymal Mills won the toss on Tuesday evening and asked Hampshire to bat first. His call proved to be correct almost immediately as Hampshire found themselves reeling at 42-4 inside the first seven overs.

Dawson and Tristan Stubbs combined to add 66 runs for the fifth wicket to rescue the Hawks’ innings as the Proteas batter contributed 36 off 23. Dawson, meanwhile, struck his second consecutive half-century in the competition, making 52 off 35 before being dismissed off the bowling of opposition skipper Mills.

Hilton Cartwright and James Fuller provided the finishing impetus in the last three overs as their cameos propelled Hampshire to 173-6 by the end of the first innings.

Sussex start strong but finish weak

Like the first innings, Sussex started the second on top, with Daniel Hughes and Harrison Ward completely dominating the powerplay overs. They put on 67 in six overs before Ward was dismissed on the last ball of the powerplay.

However, the tide turned thereafter. None of the other batters was able to continue the momentum as Dawson applied the choke through the middle overs.

The England all-rounder picked up the wickets of James Coles, Jack Leaning, and Mills to finish with figures of 3/20. Chris Wood (2/20) supported him brilliantly as well, as Sussex folded for 144 with 15 balls to spare, falling 29 runs short.

Dawson had recently called time on his first-class career with immediate effect after being left out of England’s Test squad for the NZ series. However, he will continue to play white-ball cricket, and showed on Tuesday night that he is still good enough to thrive across departments.

By scoring a half-century, taking three wickets and two catches, Dawson became the sixth player in T20 Blast History to do so and only the second Hampshire player to achieve the feat since Sean Ervine, who achieved this feat 17 years ago on the same date.