Steady batting from Delray Rawlins in both innings was not enough to prevent Sussex from slumping to a third straight defeat in their Bob Willis Trophy match against Middlesex at Radlett in Hertfordshire today.

The home side won by five wickets with a day to spare in the four-day match.

Rawlins scored a run-a-ball 46 in Sussex’s first innings and shared in a 35-run sixth-wicket partnership with Ollie Robinson (19) to stabilise the innings.

The 22-year-old carried on in the same vein in the second innings with a knock of 33 from 40 deliveries spread across two sessions.

Rawlins led a late recovery with Ben Brown, the Sussex captain, during the final session of day two on yesterday after the visiting side slipped to four for as many runs.

The pair added 29 runs to guide their team to stumps without further damage at 33 for four and an overall lead of 123.

They added a further 30 runs when play resumed this morning before Rawlins departed in the seventeenth over of the innings after getting a leading edge and offering a return catch to seam bowler Tim Murtagh.

The visiting side collapsed once the partnership was broken as they lost their remaining five wickets for 31 runs in 13 overs with Brown (45) the only other Sussex batsmen managing double figures in the innings.

That left Middlesex with a target of 193, which they reached with John Simpson (32) and Martin Andersson (27) guiding the home side safely home in the final session of the day.

Robinson, the Sussex seam bowler, achieved a milestone in Middlesex’s second innings with the dismissal of Stevie Eskinazi to capture his 250th first-class wicket.

Meanwhile, Rawlins and his team-mates will now shift their focus to white ball cricket when they host Surrey in their Vitality Blast T20 opener at the 1st Central County Ground on Friday.