T20 Blast: Middlesex beat Sussex for first win in 2026 competition

Middlesex won their first Twenty20 Blast match with an impressive display against Sussex in Hove, with the home side relegating them to the bottom of the Southern Group table.

Middlesex posted a challenging 213-4, helped by a 41-ball 77 from opener Max Holden, who hit five sixes and six fours.

Opening partner Adam Rossington fell in the fourth over, with Tymal Mills’ pace as he played a short-arm hook to deep backward square-leg.

But the left-handed Holden was in fine form and picked up a fifty in the sixth over when he guided Mills to the third-man boundary.

He put on 95 for the second wicket with Joshua de Kears, who scored his maiden blast fifty, and scored an unbeaten 80 off 44 deliveries with five sixes and seven fours.

And when Holden was dropped in the deep, after hitting Danny Briggs for his final six, skipper Lews du Ploy added 65 for the third wicket with de Caires to put Sussex back on the mend.

The Sussex bowling attack lacked Ollie Robinson and Henry Crowcombe – called up by England and England Lions respectively. Mills, who took three wickets, bowled well and at times with real pace, but apart from the experienced Briggs, who cost just 33 runs in four overs, Sussex’s other bowlers were costly.

Sussex opener Tom Clarke got injured on the field. But he showed such form in the previous match against Kent that Jack Carson opened the running for him.

And, batting virtually on one leg, he gave Sussex the start they wanted, hitting 31 off 13 balls with two huge sixes and four fours before being caught off Tom Helm.

Opening partner Dan Hughes had fallen in the previous over and when John Simpson drilled spinner Luke Holman to long-off off the first delivery after the power play, a frustrating stroke, Sussex collapsed to 65-3 in the seventh over.

James Coles was not at his most fluent, and was almost caught three times, but some big-hitting from Tom Alsop kept the required rate below 13 per over.

Alsop made 43 from a 67-run partnership with Coles when his 24-ball innings ended, caught at long off by de Keers.

Although Sussex were only slightly behind in the loss, they continued to lose wickets. Coles, who had 33 possessions from 27 deliveries, was dismissed for 143 in the fifth and when Danny Lamb was lbw with a single three balls later Sussex had lost three wickets for 13 and needed 69 from the last five overs.

It was too much for Sussex’s lower order and under intense scoreboard pressure they were bowled out for 182, losing their last seven wickets for 50 runs.