Warwickshire stay alive in Royal London Cup with win over Sussex

Warwickshire retained their outside chance of qualifying for the Royal London One Day Cup quarter-finals with a four-wicket win over Sussex at Rugby School.

Knowing they needed to beat Sussex, and then Kent at Edgbaston on Wednesday - while also hoping that other results go their way - the Bears fulfilled the first part of the equation by extending Sussex's nightmare Group B campaign.

Put in on a good pitch Sussex, without a win in the competition, Sussex compiled a meagre 217 that never looked like being a competitive score.

Only Australian import George Bailey (59 from 72 balls) built an innings of substance against an accurate attack led by Jeetan Patel (3-42) and Oliver Hannon-Dalby (3-46).

Warwickshire suffered a couple of wobbles but William Porterfield's skilful 100, which came in 125 balls and included 13 fours, saw them home comfortably.

Kent pulled off a stunning run chase to defeat Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge to keep their quarter-final hopes alive and set up a thrilling final set of games.

Set to score 336, they were seen to a five wicket victory by Sam Billings, who made 118 not out and shared in a match-winning sixth wicket stand of 133 with Alex Blake, who hit the winning six to close on an undefeated 50.

Billings scored his runs from 89 balls, hitting 12 fours and three maximums to turn the tables on the previously unbeaten group leaders.

The Spitfires reached their target with eight balls to spare, having been set on their way by half centuries from Daniel Bell-Drummond and Fabian Cowdrey.

Bell-Drummond made 73 before chopping on from Brett Hutton, who returned figures of 3-72, and Cowdrey scored 51 from 49 balls.

Earlier, Notts posted 335 but their innings ended in bizarre circumstances as their last six wickets fell for the addition of only four runs, in the space of just 10 deliveries, with Matt Coles claiming a hat-trick.

James Taylor led the way with 109, making his runs from 111 balls faced and having hit four fours and four sixes, while Alex Hales scored 81 and Dan Christian blasted 59.

Ashwell Prince equalled his highest List A score for Lancashire as the Red Rose boosted their quarter-final hopes with a 29-run victory over Hampshire at the Rose Bowl.

Opener Prince notched 102 to set up victory after putting on a record second-wicket stand with with Alviro Petersen for the visitors.

Adam Wheater gave hope to Hampshire to chase the 302 needed to win as he struck a century but they were bowled out for 272 as Lancashire clinched victory.

The Lightning sit fifth in the table but are level on points with Kent and only one point adrift of Hampshire, with all three teams having one group game remaining.

Dawid Malan hit some of the biggest sixes seen at Lord's this season as his exhilarating 156 not out helped Middlesex to a crushing eight-wicket victory over Glamorgan.

One of Malan's sixes struck the balcony on the top tier of the pavilion, one flew into the top tier of the New Mound Stand and another - over a long boundary on one side of the ground - made it all the way into the Warner Stand.

It meant that Colin Ingram's third century in five Royal London One-Day Cup innings this season was all in vain as Glamorgan's 50-over total of 251-9 was chased down by Middlesex with 10.2 overs to spare as the latter finished with 255-2.

Malan, like Ingram a left-hander in superb current form, was joined by Paul Stirling in an opening stand of 139 in 21.2 overs and, in all, the 27-year-old hit four sixes and a massive 18 fours from 128 balls in a one-day career-best knock.

Ingram's 102 from 93 balls included five sixes and four fours was a fine effort, but even it paled by comparison to Malan's astonishing hitting, which extends his fine run of form in all forms of the game.

But any hopes they had of a place in the quarter-finals were brought to an end by Lancashire's win later in the evening.