‘Fielding was absolutely atrocious’ – Farbrace blasts Sussex after cup thrashing at Derby

Luis Reece continued his impressive run in the Metro Bank One-Day Cup as Derbyshire thrashed Sussex Sharks by eight wickets at Derby. Reece followed half-centuries in the previous two Group B matches with 92 from 90 balls to set Derbyshire up for their first win in the competition.

He shared an opening stand of 159 from 136 balls with Harry Came who made 94 off 76 balls, his best List A score, before combining with David Lloyd to take the game away from Sussex.

The pair added 92 from 75 balls with Lloyd unbeaten on 86 from 63 balls when Derbyshire chased down 300 with 8.2 overs to spare, closing on 302 for 2.

Tom Haines top scored for Sussex with 94 from 112 balls and Cheteshwar Pujara made 56 off 61 but Suranga Lakmal’s 4 for 60 helped restrict the visitors to 299 for 8.

Farbrace said: "We didn't get enough runs, bowled poorly with the new ball and gave them a great start to their run chase.

"There are only so many times we can talk about how we've got to learn and get better but there comes a point where you can only do so much talking and today we deserved to lose the game.

"They were by far the best team, they played the best cricket and their batters when they got in, stayed in. It didn't help that our fielding was absolutely atrocious, that's the worst fielding performance I've seen in my time at Sussex, and you can't expect to win games if you give players lives.

"So no excuses, very poor from start to finish, we didn't play well enough, and they cantered to a very comfortable victory so all in all it's a really disappointing defeat."

Sussex would have fancied setting a tougher target after Haines and Tom Clark played with purpose from the start, aided by some erratic bowling from Sam Conners who leaked 31 runs from his first four overs.

Haines took advantage of some width to cover drive Conners for three consecutive fours and the Sussex skipper also lifted off-spinner Alex Thomson over the long off boundary.

Sussex scored 66 from the first powerplay but Derbyshire exerted a measure of control after Clarke was lbw trying to work Reece through mid-wicket.in the 13th over.

On a pitch where scoring was not easy once pace was taken off the ball, the rate dipped with 47 coming from the next 10 overs and the pressure was maintained by leg-spinner Mattie McKiernan and left-armer Mark Watt.

McKieran had Tom Alsop caught at short third man reverse sweeping for 26 from 39 balls and in tandem the pair conceded only 16 from six overs.

Haines and Pujara picked up the tempo with good placement on both sides of the wicket and the stand was gathering momentum when Thomson made the breakthrough.

Haines edged a cut behind and although Pujara drove Thomson over long off for six, Sussex were not able to get away in the last 10 overs.

Jack Carson took 10 off two Lakmal deliveries but fell to the experienced Sri Lankan in the final over after Pujara drove a Conners full toss to mid off.

Derbyshire’s chase was fuelled by four erratic overs from Brad Currie and Henry Crocombe which cost 49 runs, helping Came reach his second consecutive 50 in the tournament from only 38 balls.

Although former Derbyshire all-rounder Fynn Hudson-Prentice initially commanded respect, Sussex were struggling to stem the flow of runs as Came and Reece completed another century stand off 82 balls.

The pair were motoring along at seven an over and after Came passed his previous List A best of 73 he pulled Archie Lenham through the hands of Carson at deep mid-wicket for his second six.

Reece completed his third consecutive 50 from 52 balls and after he was badly dropped by Lenham at short third man, drove Coles for six.

Came had a hundred in his grasp until he pulled Lenham to short mid-wicket but Reece and Lloyd plundered some poor bowling to drive Derbyshire towards victory.

Lloyd, on loan from Glamorgan for the tournament, reached 50 from 43 balls and although Reece top-edged a sweep at Lenham, Sussex were already heading for a third consecutive defeat.