County cricket: Lancashire and Kent reach Royal London Cup final

When Steve Eskinazi invited Sussex to bat at Hove, he knew that a win for either side would be enough to reach the knockout stage, maybe even zoom straight through to a home semi-final. At 160-2 with 18 overs left, he was aware that if he could keep things tight, the pyjamas would not be going back into the wardrobe for their winter hibernation just yet.

When the wheels fall off for the fielding side at Hove, the batters can fly like angry seagulls on the wind and, boy oh boy, did Middlesex get a bombing. Seven sixes and 30 fours swept the visitors’ chances into the English Channel, an absurd 240 runs coming in 18 overs of carnage, Sussex seeing 400 on the scoreboard, Tom Alsop 189 not out and Cheteshwar Pujara (who had hit over half of those fours) out for a dazzling 132.

As Group A winners, it’ll be “Sussex by the Sea” in the first semi-final, while Middlesex lick their wounds without even a shot at redemption through a knockout match against Group B’s runners-up.

Hampshire cruised past an inexperienced Yorkshire XI (who have done very well to get so close to reaching the knockout stage) at Scarborough, their three-point cushion more comfortable than the phrasing suggests.

It was the Tykes’ misfortune to run into Aneurin Donald on one of his disappointingly infrequent hot days after a chilly summer for the 25-year-old who once hit 234 off 136 balls as a teenager for Glamorgan. Some of that muscly muscle-memory returned as he stood on the platform of 150-2 and hit 76 off 31 balls to push the visitors towards the 300+ target they wanted to set.

Yorkshire’s top four, just 54 List A matches between them, could not cope with the new ball movement of Ian Holland and John Turner (on his way to a fivefer) and there was no