Essex 316-6 (50 overs)
Sussex Sharks 320-5 (49.2 overs)
Sussex Sharks (4 points) beat Essex by 5 wickets
The Sussex Sharks won their first Metro Bank One Day Cup match at the fourth attempt, beating Essex by five wickets with just four balls to spare at Arundel.
Jack Leaning, short of runs all season, anchored the innings with an unbeaten 74-ball 59 and took his side over the line after fifties from Charlie Tear and captain Jack Carson.
Leaning struck just two fours in reaching fifty but hit a six in the penultimate over to set up victory.
Sussex, chasing 317, made an assured start through Tear, who thrived on sweep and pull shots, and George Thomas, with 63 coming from the first 10 overs before Thomas drove Mackenzie Jones straight to Noah Thain at cover for a 46-ball 41.
That brought in Joe Johnson for his first-team debut. And he lofted Mitchell Killeen over mid-on for six as 16 came off the over.
He and Tear added 46 runs from 45 balls before Johnson top-edged a sweep off Matt Critchley. And wrist-spinner Critchley struck again in his next over when Tear chipped a delivery straight back to him. He had hit seven fours and two sixes in his 72-ball 73.
Dan Ibraham maintained the momentum with 26 off 28 balls but it was a 99-run partnership between Leaning and the more attacking Carson that set up the win before some late blows from Fynn Hudeson-Prentice.
The Essex innings was built around a second-wicket stand of 151 in 24 overs between Thain (102) and Tom Westley (81). But Essex might have expected an even bigger total when they were 152-1 at the halfway stage of their innings.
The runs came more easily when the ball was hard and the Sussex bowlers were bowling more boundary balls.
Sussex broke through in only the second over when Hudson-Prentice had Luc Benkenstein, driving, caught by Jack Leaning at second slip. But that was the only joy for some time for a crowd of over 4,000.
But Thain should have gone when he had made only three, when he edged the returning Ollie Robinson to Leaning, although it was a more difficult chance than his first.
Instead, Thain went on to make his first century for Essex at senior level, his runs coming off 116 deliveries and including 13 fours.
Westley, who scored a century in his only previous outing in the competition this season, was literally the driving force as 65 came off the first 10 overs, with a dozen fours, with the hundred coming up in the 18th.
Westley, whose 81 came from 71 deliveries with 12 fours and a six, was second out in the 26th over when he pulled spinner Troy Henry to Ibrahim at short midwicket.
After that the main contribution came from Critchley (a run a ball 64) as the Sussex bowlers – and there were eight of them – cleverly mixed up their bowling and pulled back the scoring rate.
Afterwards, Thain said: “It was a good feeling to get my first hundred. I was sad we lost because I wanted that hundred to be part of a match-winning performance by us.
“But it was still a special day. I’ve shown I can score runs at this level and go on to make a big score and that’s good for the confidence.
“Reaching three figures is different. The competition has been good for me and I’ve scored runs before but to get a hundred gives me a big boost.
“The wicket slowed up. But Tommy (Westley) came out and really took it to the bowlers. But it took time for most batters to get used to the pace of the wicket as it slowed up. I thought they played well and Charlie (Tear) played beautifully at the top.”
Leaning said: “It was nice to get a win on the board. The lads have been hurting the last few weeks. Today wasn’t a complete performance but we definitely deserved to win the game.
“We haven’t played well enough and apart from Charlie (Tear) we haven’t had a hundred in the first four games.
“But now we’ve got our foot in the door hopefully we can have a run in the back end of the comp and sneak our way through.
“We were pretty confident at halfway. Jack Carson has had a brilliant season with bat and ball and now he’s leading the team really well.
“I hurt myself when I fell badly trying to take a catch and then I got hit in the same place when I batted.”
