Sussex captain Michael Yardy believed his team's lack of experience with the Super Over rule cost them dear.

They were eliminated from the inaugural Airtel Champions League Twenty20 by the Diamond Eagles on Tuesday.

Sussex had fought bravely to force the one-over-a-side tiebreaker after they had managed just 119 for seven.

The Eagles were seemingly coasting to victory in their reply thanks to a brisk 65 from opener Rilee Rossouw, but a fine effort from spinners Piyush Chawla and Rory Hamilton-Brown left the South Africans needing 12 from the final over from Yasir Arafat.

The Pakistan quick conceded three singles first up but Ryan McLaren managed an inside-edged four off the fourth delivery and hit a four through midwicket off the final delivery to tie the scores.

The Super Over rule - an extra over with teams permitted only three batsmen and one bowler - was applied.

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The Eagles managed nine off Arafat, while Sussexlost two wickets off the first two deliveries from Cornelius de Villiers to end their innings and hand their opponents victory and a berth in the second round.

Yardy said there were plenty of suggestions at the start of the Super Over, but the team had always believed Arafat would be the bowler to get the job done.

"I think there were about 3,000 discussions at one point at the start of the Super Over," Yardy said.

"Yasir has been absolutely brilliant for us bowling at the death in the domestic season for us.

"We think he's one of the best in the world and he was always going to be the man for us.

"But we have never had it (Super Over) before so we didn't really know what to do. But fair play to the Diamond Eagles, they played very well."

Yardy admitted his team could have won it without having the Super Over enforced.

"Their openers played really well and got them off to a flyer, but we clawed back with a bit of spin in the middle," he said.

"Dwayne Smith also turned in a good spell and we were looking good.

"But that's the way it goes with Twenty20 cricket and Ryan McLaren scored two boundaries at the end and now we are going home.

"It was a fantastic game of cricket, we fought our way back into the game, but we just came up short.

"It's an absolutely brilliant tournament and we've been looked after fantastically well.

"We've really enjoyed our time here and I think its an incentive to come back here and try and go one step better."

Diamond Eagles skipper Boeta Dippenaar admitted the finish was too close for comfort.

"I'm very happy, but 10 years older," he said.

"We have had a bit of experience with the Super Over last year in the semi-final of the Standard Bank Pro20 series and that came in handy.

"We just kept it calm, tried to make sure we hit it as straight as possible especially on this wicket and while bowling we tried to keep it straight and back off a length and CJ (de Villiers) did a magnificent job for us.

"I thought we bowled well to restrict Sussex to 119, but with the start we had I thought we should not have gone to the Super Over.

"We lost momentum after the powerplay and the wicket was a little harder to bat on with even Rilee struggling towards the end of his innings.

"We are in the next round, we are improving, we are a young team and we are looking to play many more matches here."

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