Sussex boosted their hopes of qualifying for the quarter-finals of the Friends Life t20 and virtually ended Gloucestershire's at the same time with a six-wicket win at Arundel.
Chris Nash took four for seven as Gloucestershire were bowled out for 121 and then made an unbeaten 36 to steer Sussex home with 11 balls to spare. The result lifted Sussex into second place in the south division while Gloucestershire are now five points adrift of the top four with the same number of games remaining.
Hamish Marshall got Gloucestershire off to a good start as he and Kevin O'Brien put on 42 for the first wicket off 28 balls. There was to be no repeat of their 192-run stand against Somerset, though, as O'Brien holed out to Nash at long-on off the bowling of Luke Wright for just four.
Chris Liddle put down a straightforward catch on the midwicket boundary in the same over and Marshall threatened to make the most of the reprieve. He had made 41 of Gloucestershire's 64 runs when he was third out pulling Ollie Rayner to deep square leg where Wright took the catch.
Ian Cockbain and Chris Taylor put on 29 for the fourth wicket, but when the former fell to Monty Panesar (two for 29) for 18, Gloucestershire's innings fell apart as they lost their last six wickets for 27 runs. Nash was the main destroyer as he removed Jack Taylor with his fourth ball and then bowled both Chris Taylor and Ed Young in his second over before having Jon Lewis caught at long-on in his third.
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Umar Gul (two for 16) then wrapped things up with 10 balls still remaining by bowling Richard Coughtrie and David Payne in successive balls. Sussex's reply did not get off to the best of starts with Ben Brown and Wright both departing cheaply inside the first four overs. Brown was trapped lbw sweeping at a full length ball from Kane Williamson while Wright skied a catch off Payne to mid-off.
Muttiah Muralitharan (two for 25) then had the alarm bells ringing as he removed Matt Prior and Murray Goodwin in successive balls in his first over. Prior top-edged a sweep to short fine leg and Goodwin went first ball as he pushed forward and edged to wicketkeeper Coughtrie.
Lou Vincent and Nash guided Sussex home, though, with an unbroken partnership of 74. Vincent finished unbeaten on 44 with Nash making 36 from 32 deliveries.
Meanwhile Kent kept their quarter-final hopes alive with a deserved five-wicket win over Glamorgan in Canterbury.
Chasing 139 for their sixth win in 12, the Spitfires eased home with four balls to spare courtesy of a sixth-wicket stand worth 57 between man-of-the-match Sam Northeast and Geraint Jones, who finished unbeaten with 39 and 30 respectively.
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Alviro Petersen had top-scored for Glamorgan with 33 in the visitors' 138 for six but despite Robert Croft's three wickets, that total did not prove sufficient as Kent reached 142 for five. Kent's response got off to an unfortunate start when Joe Denly lost his footing and trod on leg stump, dislodging one bail to go hit wicket to Simon Jones for eight.
Then, with his score on 18, fellow opener Rob Key aimed to reverse sweep against the spin of Croft only to bottom edge onto pad and boot, from where the ball bounced up allowing Mark Wallace to claim a sharp catch stood up to the stumps.
Darren Stevens was beaten in the flight by Croft to make it 66 for three and Kent's top t20 scorer with almost 300 runs, Azhar Mahmood, reached 32 before falling leg before when aiming an audacious paddle against Jim Allenby. In the next over Alex Blake heaved across the line to go leg before without scoring to give Croft excellent final figures of three for 27 from his four overs.
With the 100 up after 16 overs Geraint Jones pulled the biggest six of the day over mid-wicket against James Harris then, with 28 needed from the final three overs, plundered another six and two fours as 19 came off the next over from Allenby to bring victory within easy reach.
Having elected to bat first the Dragons were given a rousing start through their robust opener Mark Cosgrove. The burly left-hander off-drove for six against Mahmood in a cameo knock of 19 from 16 balls that ended with a missed a slog sweep against a Mahmood slower ball that pegged back Cosgrove's leg stump.
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Petersen appeared to be getting into full stride when pulling consecutive fours off teenage left-arm seamer Adam Ball, but Ball had his revenge by clinging on to a low return catch that sent Petersen packing for 33 from 23 balls.
Allenby added 14 before he edged to the keeper when aiming a run down to third man against off-spinner James Tredwell then Chris Cook toe-ended an attempted pull against Wahab Riaz and spooned a catch to Tredwell at mid-wicket.
Gareth Rees (six) called for a risky second run to Stevens patrolling the deep mid-wicket boundary and lost the race against his throw to the striker's end and two balls later Graham Wagg (24), batting with a runner after injuring his foot, holed out to long-on.
Riaz conceded 19, including five wides and a no ball, in his final over and the penultimate one of the innings as the Welsh county set the Spitfires an asking rate of 6.95 for victory.