Essex 163 for 7 (Khushi 53, Shadab 3-28) beat Sussex 138 (Harmer 4-28, Critchley 3-28) by 25 runs

The 34-year-old offspinner struck together with his first three balls after approaching within the third over as Essex simply defended a goal of 164.

Sussex had already misplaced skipper Ravi Bopara within the first over of their reply when Harmer started to solid his spell, though he was helped by some poor shot choice by Sussex's extra skilled batters.

His first sufferer Tom Alsop, contemporary from a match-winning half-century in Sunday's win over Surrey, tried to hit excessive and as an alternative gave catching observe to Sam Cook at brief third. Shadab Khan clipped the following ball to sq. leg and Michael Burgess was lbw sweeping the hat-trick supply, which might have hit center stump.

It was Essex's first hat-trick within the format since Shaun Tait towards Nottinghamshire in 2013 and the primary towards Sussex since Dimi Mascarenhas for Hampshire again in 2004.

With Bopara, opening within the absence of the injured Ali Orr, having picked out short-third off the fourth ball from Sam Cook, Sussex have been 15 for 4 with their chase successfully over earlier than it had begun.

Sussex's head coach, Paul Farbrace, was scathing. "It was a score we should have comfortably chased down," he mentioned. ""We did not have a really clear mindset once we chased and did not bat effectively in any respect. The first 4 wickets have been very poor dismissals.

"Ravi set the tone, it was a lazy waft outside off stump and he gave his wicket away. Tom Alsop was looking to hit a wide ball over long on, Shadab has lobbed one to square leg and Michael Burgess played the first sweep I've seen from him in two weeks. That summed up our innings.

"I do not thoughts folks getting out however we gave our wickets away in a reasonably non-aggressive means. It was a reasonably lame efficiency, if that is the usual of how we will bat in the remainder of the event we will lose a whole lot of video games. We must be ashamed of that. We've now bought two video games in two days on the weekend however we have to bat a rattling sight higher than we did tonight. That was not ok."

James Coles (35), Tom Clark (31) and Ollie Carter (27) offered some resistance but Harmer returned to have Fynn Hudson-Prentice brilliantly caught one-handed by Tom Westley off a full-blooded reverse lap to claim the fourth four-wicket return of his T20 career.

Earlier, Sussex seemed to have justified Bopara's decision to field first against his former county, restricting Essex to 163 for 7 thanks to a disciplined performance by their seven-man attack.

Pakistan leg-spinner Shadab led the way with 3 for 28, all to catches in the mid-wicket region. Shadab had been unable to bowl on his debut in last Friday's defeat to Somerset after colliding with team-mate Nathan McAndrew in the outfield and concussion protocols ruled him out of Sunday's win over Surrey.

Shadab Khan took two wickets in two balls•Mike Hewitt/Getty Images

He made up for lost time here, picking up wickets off successive balls in his second over as Critchley top-edged a sweep to mid-wicket and Paul Walter flicked the next ball to Bopara. Shadab returned to remove Westley off another mistimed leg-side swipe in his final over.

Lawrence, released from England's Test squad to play this game and tomorrow night's match against Hampshire in Chelmsford, looked in the mood when he drove his first ball onto the roof of the South Stand, but he mis-timed a pull off Mills who finished with 2 for 32 and mixed up his pace nicely.

Robin Das was dropped by Bopara on 9 and ended up with an unbeaten 31, placing on 35 on the finish with Harmer (21 not out). They have been essential runs by the Essex captain, however his main affect on proceedings was nonetheless to return.