Sussex Sharks were the visitors to New Road for the Clydesdale Bank 40 group A match, over two months since the last fixture. For the Royals Richard Jones came into the side in the place of Shaaiq Choudhry. Daryl Mitchell won the toss for the home side and elected to bat first.

Despite a 2nd wicket stand of 97 the home side struggled against the Sussex spin bowlers. Jack Manuel made a career best 48 and Vikram Solanki 51 at the top of the innings before both being dismissed to good catches by Murray Goodwin. It was a good innings by 20 year old Jack Manuel showing a lot of potential at the top of the innings and was unlucky not to make his half century in an a fine innings lasting 44 deliveries and containing 7 boundaries.

From scoring 111-2 in the first 20 overs the home side then struggled to score just 106-5 in the second half of the innings. Alexei Kervezee made 26 off 39 deliveries and James Cameron 33 off 39 deliveries as runs were hard to come by when the pace was taken off the ball and boundaries hard to come by. The home side scored below par total of 217-7 in their 40 over allocation. Chris Nash took 1-32 and Monty Panesar 1-38 in their economical eight over spells, helped by 2-34 by skipper Michael Yardy with 2-34.

In reply Sussex strolled to their victory target with over 10 overs to spell. The stand out performance was by Ed Joyce who made an unbeaten 101* in just 89 deliveries, reaching his 100 scoring the winning run with his 11th boundary.

Sussex started with an opening stand of 153-1 within 22 overs. Chris Nash combined his earlier good bowling performance opening the innings with Joyce making 61 from 55 deliveries before being caught by Gareth Andrew at mid on off the bowling of Daryl Mitchell.

The only other wicket to fall was that of Lou Vincent, bowled for 8 by Saeed Ajmal. Despite only offering a couple of difficult catch chances during the innings it was a very comfortable win for the visitors. Murray Goodwin scored an unbeaten 39* of just 29 deliveries in the 3rd wicket stand of 56 with Joyce which saw Sussex home.

It was not a good day for the Worcestershire bowlers but it was always going to be a struggle against a strong Sussex batting line up. Jack Shantry was the pick of the bowlers with 0-38 from 6 overs and should have got the wicket of Nash early in the innings if a difficult chance at mid-on had be taken.

Result: Sussex (218-2) beat Worcestershire (217-7) by 8 wickets with 63 balls to spare.