Goodwin marshalls Sussex chase

Murray Goodwin kept his cool with an unbeaten 58 from 82 balls to lead Sussex to the top of NatWest Pro40 Division One with a four-wicket victory over Lancashire.

Goodwin's chanceless innings under the Hove floodlights guided the Sharks to a target of 184 with 11 balls to spare.

The defeat leaves injury-hit Lancashire rooted to the bottom of the table without a win in five games, three of which have been washed out.

Spinners Mike Yardy, Rory Hamilton-Brown and Chris Nash took eight wickets between them as Lancashire were dismissed for a below-par 183 after winning the toss.

Yardy then set his side on their way to victory by hitting 48 off 72 balls with five fours.

Former Zimbabwe batsman Goodwin, who struck six boundaries, took the man-of-the-match award for recording the highest score in the game in Sussex's first match at their home ground for eight weeks.

Murray Goodwin shepherded Sussex home with a superb unbeaten 58 © Getty Images

Buy this photo

Yardy got Sussex's run-chase off to a solid start by sharing an opening stand of 59 in 10 overs with Nash, who contributed 26.

Acting skipper Glen Chapple, standing in for the injured Stuart Law, broke through by having Nash caught at short fine-leg, and struck again in his next over when Chris Adams edged behind.

But the experienced Goodwin joined Yardy to add 43 in a dozen overs for the third wicket before Yardy top-edged a sweep off left-arm spinner Gary Keedy.

Sussex were left to score another 50 from the final 10 overs after Dwayne Smith fell to a catch at midwicket off leg-spinner Francois Du Plessis, a feat they achieved with few alarms thanks to Goodwin.

Lancashire earlier faded badly to be dismissed with seven balls off their innings unused after being handily placed on 102 for one after 20 overs.

Opener Lou Vincent gave them a promising start by hitting 50 off 53 balls, while Paul Horton's 56 was his highest one-day score.

However, Lancashire squandered their sound platform, the slide beginning after Kiwi Vincent and Horton had shared in a second-wicket stand of 56 in 11 overs.

Vincent became Yardy's first victim, trapped lbw attempting to sweep after hitting four fours and three sixes.

Du Plessis fell to Yardy in his next over for only four, and Steven Croft and Gareth Cross were victims for Hamilton-Brown as Lancashire’s innings fell apart.

They lost their last four wickets for only 11 after Horton, having faced 75 balls and hit two fours, holed out at long-off to give Nash the first of three wickets.