WITH a certain inevitability, after morning news had confirmed that Chris Adams had won the England call he so craved in his 10 seasons at Derby, Sussex's new captain strode out to open and made a century in 113 balls.
It was his third hundred in 13 competitive innings since arriving at Hove this summer, and was ended, next ball, when he advanced to drive Paul Franks and lost his middle stump. Yet his runs had failed hitherto to bring his side an AXA success in each of three previous starts and, in the Benson and Hedges, totals of 277 and 281 proved inadequate in defeats which saw Sussex eliminated after just two games.
Given a good Trent Bridge pitch, Adams would have taken nothing for granted.
Indeed Sussex, put in, should certainly have posted a stiffer target. At 181 for two after 32 overs, 250 looked a reasonable minimum. After fellow opener Keith Newell had obligingly turned Kevin Evans's first ball to mid-wicket, Adams had shared 92 runs with Newell's younger brother, Mark, and now 86 in 12 overs with Michael Bevan.
Both partners, if pushed, might dispute any blame for their run-outs. Adams dropped a ball to the onside and made as if to steal a single only to halt leaving Newell, responding too well, beyond recovery. Bevan swept to short fine leg, and, called through, hesitated fleetingly, before failing to beat the throw to the bowler.
After Jamie Carpenter had been superbly stumped, first ball, from a legside wide, Adams, whose acceleration after a calculated start included three straight sixes in Paul Strang's last eight deliveries, went in the 37th over, continuing the decline.
Notts, seeking 5.92 per over, moved happily along at precisely that rate for 23 overs. The problem was that, as every 15 minutes passed, so, on cue, a wicket fell. Only Paul Johnson, who greeted Alex Edwards's first three balls with a six, a four and a clipped catch to mid-on, and Graeme Archer, bowled by Edwards as he swiped, figured among the specialists.
Edwards completed career-best one-day figures before the Notts lower-order found the mounting asking rate too demanding, for all Chris Tolley's bowled efforts.