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- Scorecard: New South Wales vs Sussex
Moises Henriques's stellar all-round show guided New South Wales Blues to the League stage of the Champions League Twenty20 as the Australian side beat Sussex Sharks comfortably by 35 runs in a Group B match in New Delhi on Sunday.
NSW, thus, became the second team to qualify for the next stage after Cape Cobras, who made it to the last eight league round after defeating Otago Volts on Saturday.
Henriques smashed a 33-ball unbeaten 51 and in the company of Phillip Hughes, who batted superbly for his unbeaten 64-ball 61 helped New South Wales reach a modest 130 for two after opting to bat.
Henriques then picked up three wickets for 23 runs from his four overs to shape his team's victory.
Opener Chris Nash (24 off 30) was the lone bright spot in Sussex batting line-up but he too crumbled under pressure when his side needed him.
Defending a modest 130, in-form Brett Lee gave a dream start to NSW as he struck in the first over of the innings, cleaning up stand-in skipper Sussex skipper Ed Joyce for a duck.
Without their inspirational captain Michael Yardy, who didn't play the match due to illness, the Sussex batsmen found life difficult against the pace duo of Lee and Doug Bollinger as they could manage only 12 runs of the first four overs.
Earlier, opener Phillip Hughes and Moises Henriques scored unbeaten half-centuries to help New South Wales put up a modest 130 for two in their 20 overs.
Hughes played sensibly on the tricky Feroz Shah Kotla wicket to score 61 off 64 balls while Henriques was aggression personified from the time of his arrival at the crease as he took just 33 balls for his 51.
Opener David Warner was the other notable scorer for NSW with 14 runs off 18 deliveries with the help of two fours.
For Sussex leg-spinner Piyush Chawla was the lone wicket-taker, giving away 21 runs off his two overs.
Opting to bat, the NSW started on a cautious note on the unpredictable Kotla pitch, scoring 30 runs in the first six overs.
Sensing the uneven bounce of the wicket, both the openers Warner and Hughes played sensibly and build the foundation for the score instead of going after the bowling.
The duo dealt mostly in singles and twos with occasional boundaries in the middle before Warner was run out in the eighth over.
Introduced into the attack in the ninth over, Chawla struck immediately, getting the wicket of Daniel Smith (2), caught at wide long-on boundary by Robin Martin-Jenkins.
Hughes, however, was determined to make up for his flop show against Diamond Eagles, clobbering Chawla over the long-off boundary. Inspired by his partner at the other end, Henriques swiped the leg-spinner over deep square leg for another six to pick up 17 runs from the 11th over.
Although, Hughes was not as destructive as the format of the game demands, the left-hander was the backbone of the NSW innings and notched up his half-century in 52 balls, laced with four boundaries and a six.
Henriques, on the other end, was in a ominous form, treating the Sussex bowlers with disdain to score his fifty with the help of three fours and two sixes.
Sussex bowlers though did well in the slog overs, giving away just 35 runs in the last five overs to restrict the Australian side to the modest total.