OLIVER Hannon-Dalby hit the winning runs as Warwickshire maintained their perfect start in the Royal London One-Day Cup with a dramatic one-wicket victory at Sussex.
Hannon-Dalby scored the crucial runs in the 45th over as the Bears won with one wicket to spare after bowling out the home side for just 173 at the County Ground in Hove.
The result means Warwickshire sit top of Group B having won all three of their matches in the competition thus far.
After winning the toss and opting to bowl, Sussex put on 71 runs for the first wicket before Michael Booth (3-16) trapped openers Tom Clark (32) and Tom Haines (38) LBW.
Booth struck twice in the space of four overs which sparked a dramatic collapse from the home side as Jake Lintott ran out Oli Carter (11).
Sussex lost all 10 wickets for the addition of just 72 runs in the space of 25 overs as only Henry Rogers (25 not out) made any inroads.
Ed Barnard (2-41), Hannon-Dalby (2-48), Tazeem Ali (1-15) and Lintott (1-17) all claimed wicket to put the Bears in command.
However, Warwickshire lost Rob Yates (2), Barnard (10) and Hamza Shaikh (2) inside the first 10 overs of their reply.
And Michael Burgess (11) and Chris Benjamin (12) fell soon after to leave Warwickshire in trouble on 76-5.
Some patient batting from Will Rhodes (60) and Kai Smith (44) helped rebuild the Bears innings only for the latter’s dismissal to spark a mini-collapse.
The Bears lost Smith, Rhodes and Booth (0) in the space of seven balls to leave the visitors eight wickets down in need of 25 runs for victory.
Ali (12) added some useful runs before he departed in the 43rd over to set up a dramatic conclusion.
Lintott (11 not out) and Hannon-Dalby (2 not out) eventually steered the Bears to victory with 35 balls and one wicket to spare.
Warwickshire continue their One-Day Cup campaign against Surrey on Friday, August 2 at Rugby School with the match to begin at 11am.
