New South Wales enter second round

Riding on a fine fifty by Philip Hughes and an all-round performance by Moises Henriques, New South Wales beat Sussex by 35 runs.

Chris Nash was the lone batsman, who provided some resistance even as wickets kept falling at the other end.

It was Brett Lee, who claimed the first wicket of Sussex by sending back the stand-in-captain Ed Joyce in the very first over as they chased a modest target of 131.

Sussex batsmen simply failed to apply themselves as New South Wales bowlers tightened the nooze. Lee, particualry came up with a brilliant spell, giving away just three runs in 2 overs in his first spell.

Henriques meanwhile, took two wickets.

Sussex was then just fighting a losing battle after they had lost more than half of their side for less than 70 runs on the board.

At the end, Sussex could only make 95 for eight in their allotted 20 overs, falling short by 35 runs.

Earlier, opener Philip Hughes and Moises Henriques scored unbeaten half-centuries to help New South Wales put up a modest 130 for two against Sussex Sharks in a Group B match of the inaugural Airtel Champions League match on Sunday.

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 eight 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 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 fifty in 52 balls.

He found the fence four times and cleared it once.

Henriques, on the other end, was in a ominous form, treating the Sussesx 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.

New South Wales: PJ Hughes, DA Warner, SM Katich*, MC Henriques, BJ Rohrer, SPD Smith, DLR Smith†, B Lee, NM Hauritz, SR Clark, DE Bollinger.

Sussex: EC Joyce*, CD Nash, RJ Hamilton-Brown, DR Smith, JS Gatting, PP Chawla, Yasir Arafat, AJ Hodd†, RSC Martin-Jenkins, CB Keegan, BC Brown.

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