Tom Alsop was glad to be back in the middle as his Hove century fired Sussex to a win.
The county were convincing six-wicket victors over Surrey to record their first points of a tough Metro Bank Cup campaign.
Chasing 243 to win in 50 overs, Alsop remained undefeated on 108 and Tom Haines made 79 to guide them home with 15 balls to spare.
The pair shared a match-winning partnership of 153 in 32 overs for the second wicket.
Alsop brought the scores level by pulling Nathan Barnwell for one of his three sixes.
He faced 130 balls and hit 12 fours.
Alsop said: “I’ve felt out of rhythm because I’ve been in the nets in The Hundred, and that’s different to being in the nets here, so it was a bit of a battle today but we got over the line.
“At one point it was my job to keep Tom Haines on strike but it was a good partnership.
“I think everyone acknowledges that’s it’s been a disappointing campaign, certainly not the one we expected with the quality we have in our group.
“But we have played quite a lot of youngsters and inexperienced guys and that will help us going forward.
“It was important to win today and take the momentum into the four-day stuff and then the Blast.”
Surrey were 185-3 in the 34th over, with Ben Geddes (81) and Josh Blake (53) well set.
But they lost their last seven wickets for 57 runs in 14 overs as Archie Lenham (2-35) and Jack Carson (2-49) took a grip on the game. .
Leg-spinner Lenham and off-spinner Carson, bowling to a tight ring of infielders, cleverly choreographed by captain John Simpson, took control.
Then Ollie Robinson wrapped up the innings by bowling Yousef and Seb Stuart-Reckling in the space of three deliveries.
Sussex want to get Robinson match fit for next week’s crucial Championship fixture against Yorkshire and he took 3-40 off 7.4 overs.
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