Sussex skipper Luke Wright won the toss and decided to bat first. An eight-ball 17 from Philip Salt helped them fly to 19 runs in just two overs when Salt was dismissed by a direct hit at the bowler’s end from Brett D’Oliveira. However, a 58-run stand between Laurie Evans and the captain helped neutralise the effect of the early wicket.

Wright was bowled by Ali for a 25-ball 33 halfway through the innings and was replaced by Bermudian Delray Rawlins. Evans played extremely well to notch up his half-century in the 16th over and added 44 runs with Rawlins for the fourth wicket.

Trophy time – @WorcsCCC are the @VitalityBlast 2018 CHAMPIONS! ? #COYR pic.twitter.com/xTNGBqOx29

— Worcestershire CCC (@WorcsCCC) September 15, 2018

But Ali’s 3-30 broke the spine of the Sussex batting. Each time they looked to switch to top gear, the Worcestershire captain came up with the goods to stop them in their tracks.

The off-spinner scalped Rawlins for a 16-ball 21 with a tossed-up delivery and followed it up by dismissing David Wiese in his very next over. The two wickets ended up putting pressure on Evans, who tried to find new ways of accelerating the scoring rate and was dismissed attempting a reverse scoop in the 18th over.

Wright, on the other hand, has taken the loss on the chin and is proud of the way his team performed in the lead up to the last game.

“People like Salty (Salt), Rawlins to get this experience (is amazing), and they have stood up and had some amazing performances for us and it’s great. We have no overseas players, we chose to back our own as well. I couldn’t be more proud of the way we’ve gone about it. It’s tough to lose, but as a whole, we’ve done ourselves a lot of justice,” he said.