Gloucestershire 311 all out (38 overs)
Sussex 149 all out (25.1 overs)
Gloucestershire win by 166 runs
In a rain-affected game restricted to 38 overs, the Sussex Sharks were bowled out for 149, losing by 166 runs after a blistering century from Jack Taylor took the visitors to 311 all out in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup.
In a dominant showing, the right-hander smashed Gloucestershire’s fastest ever List-A century, 106 runs from only 54 balls. Taking down a feeble Sharks attack, he crashed eight fours and seven sixes in his 76 minutes at the crease.
Particularly staggering was the six he smoked off Fynn Hudson-Prentice in the 29th over, a gigantic straight hit which sailed high into the car park.
He was supported admirably by number three batter Tom Price, who’s classical 95 included 11 boundaries. With two tons already this campaign, the 22-year-old accumulated runs steadily before reaching fifty with a hard sweep off Jack Carson in the 18th over.
Joined by Taylor, he soon upped the ante, attacking the spin of Carson and part-timer James Coles.
Both batters found the medium pace of Henry Crocombe inviting. In just seven overs, the 21-year-old was plundered for 63 runs – on the receiving end of six after six by the in-form pair.
Admirably, Crocombe managed to rescue his figures at the death. Taking four quick wickets as the visitors threw everything at the final few overs.
In the 32nd over, he had the excellent Price caught at forward square leg, attempting to claim a century with a six. Soon after, Ollie’s brother, Tom Price, was out in a similar fashion – caught by Coles for 13 from six.
Centurion Taylor and Anwar Ali were both caught before Crocombe ran out last man Paul van Meekeren.
Despite taking some tap, off-spinner Jack Carson snagged his 11th and 12th wickets of the campaign, Bracey cutting a half-tracker to Pujara mid-on and Miles Hammond stumped for 19.
Fynn Hudson-Prentice and Sean Hunt also took a wicket each. The former had opener Harvey Dent caught at second slip while the latter had number nine Matthew Taylor caught behind for 1.
In reply, the home side were powerless to stop a rampant Gloucestershire bowling attack.
Tom Haines went first, creaming a drive off Matt Taylor into the hands of Harvey Dent at cover before Tom Alsop was run out and Harrison Ward judged lbw to Tom Price the very next ball.
As were their brothers with the bat, Taylor and Price were both brilliant with the ball, the former also had debutant Charlie Tear caught at short cover while the latter dismissed Carson, who was caught down the leg-side.
With the required run rate climbing, Gloucestershire moved in for the kill.
Dutch international van Meekeren trapped 19-year-old Ibrahim lbw before setting up fellow teenager Coles with a flurry of short balls. After top-edging a couple of boundaries, Coles was out fending a bouncer down the throat of Ollie Price, who took an excellent diving catch almost directly behind the wicketkeeper.
Hope was fully extinguished in the 20th over when the Sharks’ best player, Cheteshwar Pujara, missed an attempted sweep. The Indian maestro was out for 32 from 40 balls, pinned lbw by Tom Smith.
Off-spinner Smith bowled superbly throughout. Tempting all-rounder Hudson-Prentice into a mighty slog which was caught on the boundary and taking the final wicket of Henry Crocombe to finish with three wickets for just 16 runs from his 4.1 overs.
Speaking after the game, head coach Paul Farbrace said: “You can’t get any lower than that. There’s only one way to go from that – and that’s up. At times we’ve batted well. At times we’ve bowled well. But today we bowled poorly from start to finish. We fielded poorly. We dropped chances.
“None of us can go away from tonight with anything other than embarrassment, disappointment.
“We’ve still got two more games in this competition and, to be fair to our members and supporters, we’ve got to show a bit of pride in our badge, show that we care about playing for Sussex. At times, it looked like we didn’t care and that’s unacceptable.
“It’s easy to point fingers and blame others but this is a day when everyone has to look at themselves and say, ‘What did I contribute? What did I do? How can I get better?’ That’s every single one of us, not just the players.
“We just haven’t played well enough. We’ve played some really poor cricket.”
Out of contention for the knockout rounds, Sussex’s next fixture, their penultimate One-Day Cup match, is at home to Warwickshire on Tuesday 22 August.
Sussex are a very poor team and have been for a long time. Their recruitment is clearly not producing talent but substandard public school players.
The bowling coach still keeps his job despite being incompetent. Teams score ridiculously high scores against Sussex
All true Sussex supporters should be angry.