Arafat stars for Sussex

A superb spell of bowling from Yasir Arafat and Murray Goodwin's brilliant 92 saw Sussex Sharks defeat Middlesex Crusaders by four wickets in the NatWest Pro40 Division One match at Lord’s.

Arafat took four wickets in 12 balls en route to figures of 4-29, starting with the dismissal of Middlesex’s Ed Smith after he scored a brilliant 87.

It finished with the wickets of Johann Louw and Ben Scott with brilliant inswinging yorkers as Middlesex were restricted to 185 for nine - Scott Styris was unable to bat following a recurrence of the back injury which had kept him out of the recent County Championship match.

The Sharks got off to a poor start, losing two wickets in successive overs. First to go was Matt Prior for 12, bowled by Louw as he advanced down the wicket.

Chris Silverwood then dismissed Richard Montgomerie thanks to a superb catch at slip by Owais Shah.

The introduction of Ben Hutton into the attack saw Chris Nash fall for 12, and he was soon followed back by Sean Heather, deceived by spin from Chris Peploe and bowled for 11.

Meanwhile, Goodwin continued to dominate the bowling with some glorious shots and went to his fifty from 71 balls with three fours.

Together with Carl Hopkinson, he helped add 48 crucial runs for the fifth wicket. Hopkinson was caught on the long-on boundary with Sussex needing 44 from five overs but, with Goodwin striking 15 off the 37th over, he and Robin Martin-Jenkins (13) steered them towards their target of 186.

Goodwin was bowled by Louw with three runs required, but Arafat hit the winning runs from the next ball, seeing the Sharks home with three balls to spare.

Having been put in to bat, Middlesex lost Paul Weekes to the second ball of the innings, a beauty from Jason Lewry which pitched on leg and removed off stump.

That was quickly followed by the dismissal of Shah, leg before playing half forward played half forward to leave the Crusaders struggling on eight for two.

Hutton and Smith shared a stand of 95 before Hutton was bamboozled by the spin of Mushtaq Ahmed and bowled for 40.

Smith reached his fifty shortly after, from 82 balls and including seven fours, and he and Morgan - who had earlier retired hurt with a back problem - saw his side past 150.

But Arafat and Heather combined to dismiss Morgan in the 35th over, James Kirtley accounted for Peploe with an inswinging yorker and, with Styris not returning, the innings was wrapped up when Kirtley took his third wicket as Chris Wright was pinned in front by a low full toss.