Sussex Sharks won their third successive Emirates Airline Twenty20 when they beat a star-studded MCC XI by 12 runs in the final at The Sevens cricket ground on Friday.
In the final, Sussex won the toss and elected to bat first, and reached 150 for the loss of three wickets. In reply, MCC were never really in the hunt and could only manage 138-5.
The Sussex innings was built around a superb unbeaten knock of 62 by Harry Finch, which included seven fours and one six.
There were useful contributions of an unbeaten 37 from captain Rory Hamilton-Brown and 35 from England international Matt Prior.
Hamilton-Brown then contributed with the ball as well, taking two wickets for nine runs at the top of the innings from his two overs.
Later, Hamilton-Brown said: “It went exactly as per plan. We are delighted to have won this tournament for the third time in a row.
“The boys had been raring to play, having spent almost last six months indoors. We had a few plans and we executed them well, and it was great to face such stiff competition from the MCC side.”
In the semi-finals, Sussex won comprehensively against Lancashire by 25 runs, while local side Kerala Premier League (KPL) were extremely unlucky to lose to MCC XI by two runs.
Locking horn with the big boys, KPL XI gave an excellent account of themselves. Needing three runs to tie and four to win, CTK Mashood hit a straight drive off the last ball, but hit the stumps at the other end and ended up with just one run.
KPL XI were struggling after losing their top half with just 44 on the board, but bounced back with knocks from Parvez Nazir (56*) and Avadoot Amonkar (22).
Monty Panesar was the most successful MCC bowler with 3-26.
