It all comes good for Delray Rawlins

NICK FRIEND AT HOVE: If this marks the flick of a switch into a phase of more regular match-defining performances, then the game has a treat in store

You could not reasonably watch Delray Rawlins play cricket and summon any other view than to be fairly convinced of being in the presence of a serious talent.

Only, for much of his professional career, what looks so obvious has struggled to translate into tangible numbers.

There have been fits and starts: one particular stroke – a walking, purring straight drive with a golfer's fade punched on the up against Chris Rushworth – has done the rounds on social media for years as sure-fire evidence of what everyone's always known, that Rawlins has enough flair in his wrists to be just about anything.

So, it was lovely to be there on the most idyllic afternoon at Hove for the occasion of it all coming together.

"Today's a big chance for Delray," mused one punter among a gaggle huddled between an ice-cream van and another food truck. "But how many times have we said that?" came the response from his companion. If he'd heard the conversation himself, Rawlins would have struggled to dispute its findings. Nor, one suspects, would the coaching staff at Sussex, who can only have spent years behind the scenes in awe of the purity of his gift but frustrated by its inconsistency.

Before today – when he smoked 91 in 62 balls – his professional record showed one score above 69 in 124 matches across three formats. In the T20 Blast, he made 49 on debut – five tournaments ago – and has bettered that effort just three times. With the ball, he waits for the first four-wicket haul of his career. None of this makes him unique, of course; he wouldn't be the first whose ease on the eye couldn't equate to an equivalent output.

But it's also true that Rawlins has seemingly been around forever and yet is still to turn 25. That marks him out as a senior player at Sussex these days – Danial Ibrahim, with whom he shared a 104-run stand, is seven years younger – though not in the wider reality of professional cricket.

^{James Bracey top-scored for Gloucestershire with 87 (Harry Trump/Getty Images)}

"I'd like to say I'm maturing as a player," he reflected afterwards. "I'm still quite young and I still have a lot to learn. I think it's about giving myself more responsibility and being a bit harder on myself.

"I've actually played about 70-odd T20 games. I didn't realise that until this year – that's actually quite a lot. I've played quite a bit now with some very good teams and very good players, and I've learnt a lot. It's nice to have a bit of a senior role and take on a bit more responsibility."

If this marks the flick of a switch into a phase of more regular match-defining performances, then the game has a treat in store: two successive boundaries, flashed either side of extra cover, made an entirely different sound off the bat to anything else. They were two of seven fours, accompanying five sixes in a knock that has always looked imminent but somehow also elusive.

You watch him play like this and wonder who the 120-odd players are ahead of him in the pecking order for a Hundred contract. He played once for Southern Brave last summer, wasn't retained and isn't involved this time around, even after a Blast in which he was trusted as a senior spinner and scored his runs – albeit at no great average – at an appealing rate. And in a competition where the latter metric is by far the more important, he stands out as a surprising omission.

When he was dismissed in the final over, caught yards in from the long-off rope, he exited the stage to an applause of genuine warmth – it didn't just feel that way because there were more in the ground than normal, but also because he makes the game look quite so simple that they felt compelled to display their appreciation. The great exasperation of Rawlins' numbers has always been that they are runs you want to watch, and so their paucity has bitten harder – like the mercurial playmaker with all the tricks in the book but not necessarily the end-product.

He had only ever passed fifty twice in List A cricket – one for Bermuda and another in the North/South series of 2018, further proof of his pedigree – until marshalling Sussex's lower-middle order to an impressive victory over a Gloucestershire side that looks without confidence and – much like their opponents in recent years – is reeling from the departures of key players.

^{Archie Lenham nipped in to take two wickets in Sussex's win (Mike Hewitt/Getty Images)}

The great quality of Jack Taylor's team in previous years has been the assurance of being worth more than the sum of its parts: a tight-knit unit playing an efficient, hard-to-beat brand with a togetherness founded on years spent together as a squad. All summer long, though, they have struggled for wins.

Having won the toss and fancied a chase, this was a particularly ragged showing. Rawlins was given a life before any of the subsequent carnage, shelled at long-on by Paul van Meekeren, whose five wickets were in stark contrast to the other 18 overs of seam bowled by the visitors, which cost 151 runs for no reward.

Ibrahim, an excellent ally, was dropped by Tom Smith at deep square leg. When reasonable death options ran out, Taylor was left with no choice other than to do the job himself as a part-time spinner who hadn't bowled a ball in the previous 47 overs. Ironically, it worked, but it wasn't a move that suggested things had gone according to plan.

For Cheteshwar Pujara, on the other hand, his charges took their chances and benefited from Rawlins' day out. When Taylor and Ollie Price threatened to provide valuable company for James Bracey, he castled both with his left-arm spin.

And on a pitch that offered virtually nothing to encourage finger-spin, he ended with career-best figures of 3 for 50, matching his earlier personal best with the bat.