Kirtley's figures made painful reading on Tuesday night as Napier blasted his way to an unbeaten 152 from just 58 deliveries, including 16 sixes.

The Eastbourne pace bowler took the full force of the assault as he finished with figures of 0-67 from his four overs, – the most expensive in Twenty20 history – including 29 off his final over. Kirtley said, "I will be amazed if he ever does something like that again; it was freaky.

To consistently hit the ball like that was just amazing.
"As a bowler it was hard to take. When someone is coming at you that hard you can tighten up a bit.

"I have looked back at the footage and in hindsight you may think I could have done this or that. But at the time you just try to get the ball in the right areas.

"Fair play to him, it was a great innings but we all have to move on and learn from it. As bowlers we did not deliver as a unit.

"I think the personnel is there but we have to bowl as a team not in ones and twos."

Sussex were beaten by 128 runs and are next to bottom in the Twenty20 South division after eight games.