Ross Taylor offered a tantalising hint of the leader’s role he can play for Sussex Sharks with the bat.

But the Kiwi’s 47 not out proved to be in vain as his side’s NatWest T20 Blast clash with Gloucestershire was disrupted by the elements at Cheltenham.

Rain swept across the venue during the half-time interval, making an abandonment inevitable.

Sussex collected their first point of the campaign after back-to-back home defeats and now face a testing trip to Hampshire on Thursday.

Taylor’s efforts to pace the innings on what looked a testing wicket was the main plus of the day for Sussex, who host Kent at Hove on Sunday.

He thumped three fours and two sixes in his 40-ball innings while David Payne did brilliantly in taking 3-13 from three overs to restrict Sussex to 156-8.

Having seen his side lose their opening two matches to Glamorgan and Hampshire when chasing, Taylor did not hesitate to bat first when winning the toss.

But Payne struck in his opening over as the in-form Luke Wright mistimed a pull shot to Benny Howell on the run at deep midwicket.

Chris Nash gave the innings much-needed early impetus, striking two fours and a couple of big sixes as he rushed to 33 from 22 balls, but debutant Thisara Perera made an immediate impact when the opener was strangled down the leg side.

Having made a good first impression, the new boy then blotted his copybook three overs later when he dropped Taylor on the mid-wicket boundary off Howell, who took a return catch to see off Ben Brown (30).

Taylor profited from his earlier escape but he lacked middle order support and Gloucestershire seized the upper hand in an eventful 17th over, during which the visitors lost three wickets without adding to their score.

Laurie Evans was pinned lbw by Chris Liddle, who then had David Wiese caught behind off the next ball to leave the former Sussex seamer on a hat-trick, which Chris Jordan survived only to be run out by Perera’s direct hit from mid-off as he attempted a single.

Sussex had subsided from 120-3 to 120-6 but new batsman Jofra Archer did his best to redress the balance thereafter, chancing his arm in cavalier fashion and helping himself to 22 runs off the penultimate over, bowled by Liddle.

The West Indies Under-19 international fired a quartet of fours to apply belated pressure and Liddle was removed from the attack after sending down two beamers.

But Archer perished in the final over, in pursuit of a big six over cover. George Hankins athletically parried the ball just inside the boundary rope and Michael Klinger was on hand to take a startling catch just off the ground.

David Payne then removed Will Beer for a duck, leaving a frustrated Taylor three runs short of his 50.