Sussex’s failed One-Day Cup campaign: Four areas where they simply got it wrong

Fancied to continue a run of positive performances that saw them reach the competition’s Semi-Finals in 2022, Sussex instead fell flat in Paul Farbrace’s first campaign in charge.

With a sole victory coming on the road at Somerset, there was very little for Sharks fans to cheer and there have been inquests into the campaign as a result. Reflections on a miserable August highlight several areas for improvement, including the following four key mistakes that we spotted.

Chopping and changing

A fundamental factor of Sussex’s campaign was the lack of a settled starting XI.

The club knew they would need to make changes from the side of 2022, as opening batsman Ali Orr was ruled out with a long-term knee injury and homesick all-rounder Delray Rawlins had recently been released.

With warm-up games against Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire seeing different options to replace the pair examined, most fans would expect that a settled plan had been found by the campaign’s start.

Instead, whatever vision the Sharks had was disposed of after two games.

Tom Alsop was replaced by Tom Clark as opener, while Ari Karvelas – the replacement for an injured Steven Finn – was also dropped in favour of Archie Lenham.

It’s embarrassing – we can’t get any lower.

Without warning, Clark was then removed as opener after another two games, while the bowling saw a revolving door of seamers, including Sean Hunt, Brad Currie and Jamie Atkins.

These changes created uncertainty in key roles, while worse was to come when Farbrace deemed it necessary to make wholesale changes.

Hammered! Sussex misery continues.

With qualification impossible by the time of the penultimate match against Worcestershire, out went the 551 combined runs of Cheteshwar Pujara and Fynn Hudson-Prentice, as well as the 20 wickets of Henry Crocombe and Jack Carson.

An embarrassing display followed to lose by eight wickets with almost half of the Worcestershire innings remaining, and the Sharks – with their tail between their legs – recalled Pujara and Crocombe, alongside Oli Carter and Ari Karvelas for their final game against Warwickshire.

No middle-order security

Having relied heavily on a top order of Orr, Haines, Alsop and Pujara last season, Sussex knew they had to find run scorers elsewhere to sustain 50-over success.

With no score higher than 66 from positions five, six and seven in the batting order this time around, an existing hole was seriously exposed.

Thoughts turn to County Championship run-in as cup campaign ends.

That was a real shame considering the potential of a bevy of players in these positions born after the year 2000, including Clark, Carter, Dan Ibrahim, Charlie Tear and James Coles.

All-rounder Coles was perhaps the biggest disappointment of the campaign, as he looked overburdened by a role batting at five and bowling left-arm spin; scoring just 203 runs and picking up just four wickets.

Once Coles was finally moved to number six, his batting began to flourish with a score of 59 from 56 balls against Glamorgan, but he was soon shunted back to five.

Amongst those selected across roles five, six and seven, though, the chief concern was how slowly they scored.

Hudson-Prentice finished the campaign with a strike rate of 122.58, helped by seven sixes, but elsewhere, only Carter (115.55) and Coles (104.10) scored faster than a run-a-ball.

Just one knock in the entire campaign came at the right pace as Oli Carter’s 44 off 34 balls won the match at Somerset, with this being the exception that proved a rule of poor engine room performances.

A lack of leaders

Throughout the campaign, Sussex were accused of being below par in all three areas; batting, bowling and fielding.

To go off the boil in one area might be acceptable, but to fail in three shows a lack of resolve and direction in the team, with Tom Haines being the man at whom the buck stops on the pitch.

Haines may have felt overshadowed by a returning Pujara, who has captained well in the County Championship, or may have lacked confidence in his advisors off the field to assist him.

Either way, the 23-year-old’s decisions were poor at big moments – including bowling Coles in the last five overs against Northamptonshire – and his batting did not shine either.

The left-hander made respectable figures of 317 runs at an average of 39.62, but as the likes of James Bracey (av. 51.76), Alex Lees (57.57) and Nick Gubbins (53.57) – who also combined captaincy with opening – did far better and scored decisive centuries, Haines was outshone.

A mitigating factor for the skipper was the lack of leadership in the bowling, with the absence of Ari Karvelas a big factor.

Farbrace must be questioned for this, as he opted to play the Greece international – who picked up 20 wickets in last year’s campaign – just twice, and never alongside Brad Currie, with whom he had a fantastic new-ball partnership in 2022.

A refusal to select the few proven performers in the Sharks ranks created too much pressure on the younger bowlers, meaning new signings Chris Wright and Danny Lamb cannot arrive soon enough to add vital experience.

Lack of belief

Underneath all of the aforementioned faults, rests a bigger problem for Sussex.

Ever since they conceded a chastening 427-9 against Durham in the first match at Hove, Sussex never really recovered in terms of mentality.

A confident team would not have surrendered victory to a Northamptonshire side needing 70 runs from 7.2 overs in their next game, while nerves were very much on show against Derbyshire, with nobody in pink scoring at much more than a run-a-ball.

While the win at Somerset should have restored belief, the Sharks soon reverted to type, batted out of the game by an experienced Glamorgan side before three more defeats to close.

Farbrace spoke at the start of the season about wanting to turn talk of “talented young players” into that of winners on the field, but his decisions in this campaign did anything but.

Belief comes from the players of course, but must come from coaches as well.

With four high-stakes County Championship matches now remaining to decide the mood of Sussex fans during the winter, there are no more slip-ups allowed.

Stick or twist, Farbrace must be confident in his calls, as it’s now or never for Sussex’s young guns to prove themselves on the county circuit.