Goodwin stars in Sussex triumph
Murray Goodwin made the second Twenty20 hundred of his Sussex career to help his side reach the quarter-finals for the third successive year
15-Jul-2011
Murray Goodwin made the second Twenty20 hundred of his Sussex career to help
his side reach the quarter-finals for the third successive year. Goodwin scored an unbeaten 100 off 59 balls as the Sharks, after scoring 178 for 8, beat Surrey Lions by 11 runs in front of a 6,500 sell-out crowd at Hove to secure a last-eight home tie against Lancashire Lightning.
The 38-year-old struggled physically and needed his inhaler at one stage after suffering from breathlessness. He barely had the strength to raise his bat to the crowd when he reached his
hundred off the third ball of the last over but his stroke-play and placement were outstanding.
Goodwin had to lead a rebuilding job after Sussex lost Luke Wright and Lou Vincent in the second over of this Friends Life t20 clash. Sussex were a modest 20 for 2 after four but Goodwin cut loose by taking 17 off the fifth over from Stuart Meaker.
Goodwin added 76 from 49 balls for the third wicket with Matt Prior and even when the England Test wicketkeeper holed out in the 10th over for 26 Sussex were able to maintain momentum as Chris Nash and Goodwin added a further 42 from 26 balls. Sussex lost some impetus towards the end of their innings when four wickets fell in the space of seven balls, but their total always looked competitive on a sluggish, two-paced pitch.
Not surprisingly, Goodwin did not field during the Surrey innings and the visitors looked to be in charge as openers Jason Roy and Steven Davies launched their reply with 75 in eight overs.
However, Sussex had the happy knack of taking wickets at important times, with Roy holing out shortly after reaching 50 from 42 balls - striking four boundaries and two sixes in the process - while Nash picked up Zander De Bruyn (16) on the long-on boundary in his solitary over.
Surrey might still have fancied their chances of scoring 40 off the last four overs with seven wickets in hand, but Sussex's leading wicket-taker Chris Liddle picked up three wickets in two overs including former team-mate Rory Hamilton-Brown.
Surrey needed 27 off the last over and although Tom Maynard hit 14 off the first three balls from Rana Naved-ul-Hasan, the Pakistani foxed him with his slower ball and Sussex were on their way to a home tie against Lancashire.