Lions tamed after batting collapse

Sussex Sharks consolidated their position at the top of the Friends Provident Twenty20 South Division with a comfortable victory over Surrey Lions at The Oval yesterday.

Surrey collapsed from 57 for 1 to 119 all out to fall 39 runs short of Sussex's total and give the Sharks their seventh win in eight games.

Kiwi Brendon McCullum top-scored for Sussex with 34 as they posted 158 for 7, before young leg-spinner Will Beer turned the game with the ball, taking 2 for 16.

Somerset, meanwhile, maintained the pressure on Sussex by coasting to an emphatic fourth win of the campaign by 84 runs, with nine balls to spare, over Kent in Beckenham.

In a repeat of last season's semi-final, the Sabres rattled up an impressive 189, built around an unbeaten 77 from man-of-the-match James Hildreth and Jos Butler's 48 not out.

The visitors defended their total strongly as local lad Ben Phillips came back to taunt his former club with 2 for 24.