Yorkshire Phoenix's chances of reaching the Twenty20 Cup finals day for the first time were dashed at Hove last night when they crashed by 38 runs in their quarter-final encounter with Sussex Sharks.

It was a disappointing display by Yorkshire who dropped some crucial catches in an untidy performance in the field which allowed Sussex to reach 193-5 after winning the toss and batting first.

Craig White then gave Yorkshire hope with some fierce hitting which brought him 47 off just 25 balls with seven fours and a six but once he was dismissed by Saqlain Mushtaq there was nobody who was able to step into his shoes.

Younus Khan had a couple of escapes on his way to 40 from 30 deliveries with two fours and a six but he was yorked when James Kirtley returned to the attack and wickets went down like ninepins in a desperate chase for runs in the closing overs.

Former Bradford League bowler Rana Naved was Sussex's most successful bowler with 3-26, but Yorkshire were also pegged back by the wily Mushtaq Ahmed who gave away only 22 runs while picking up the wicket of the out-of-touch Gerard Brophy, who made only seven off 18 balls.

Yorkshire were up against it in the very first over of the match as Chris Nash opened his account with four boundaries off Tim Bresnan, the second of them an inside edge which wicketkeeper Brophy, who passed a fitness test earlier in the day, could not hold as he dived to his left.

Jason Gillespie gave away 12 in his first over and Nash and Murray Goodwin continued to keep the runs coming, Sussex rapidly dashing to 43 before both bowlers tightened things up a bit.

The openers had scored 54 together when left-arm spinner David Wainwright came on and made the breakthrough as Nash drove high and straight, only to be spectacularly caught on the boundary edge by Richard Pyrah who just managed to stay inside the rope.

But there was a double blow for Yorkshire when Rudolph joined the attack and man-of-the-match Luke Wright, the leading scorer in this season's Twenty20 Cup, slogged his first ball to cow corner' where Gillespie completely misjudged the catch, and Brophy then made a hash of a stumping opportunity with Goodwin well down the track.

They were expensive misses because the second-wicket pair added 71 together in eight overs before Pyrah had Goodwin caught on the mid-wicket boundary by Gough for 57 off 49 balls with five fours.

Wright had charged on to 45 from 27 deliveries with three fours and three sixes when he mis-hit Younus Khan to White at extra cover but Yorkshire continued to be guilty of errors in the field and Sussex capitalised on the sloppiness.

Skipper Chris Adams reverse swept his way to 19 off 12 balls before he was bowled by Younus and there was a late flurry of runs from Michael Yardy and Mushtaq Ahmed which took Sussex to their formidable total.