Laurie Evans says Sussex cannot keep under-achieving in white-ball cricket.

But, as the county take stock of a 50-overs campaign which promised a lot and delivered little, their latest century-maker might just have shown the way forward.

Evans believes Sussex can do a lot better in the limited-overs formats.

Their next chance to put that right comes in the Vitality T20 Blast.

That will only happen if they learn from what has been seen at Hove as a missed opportunity in the Royal London Cup.

Both Evans, whose 107 not out against Essex on Sunday proved in vain, and head coach Jason Gillespie believe that can happen.

Evans, Sussex’s top run scorer in the 50-overs stuff last summer, finished just behind Harry Finch this time – 250 runs to 243, each from six innings.

Those are decent efforts but Sussex did not have a batsman in the top 12 run scorers in the south group.

Evans’ two not outs saw him top the county’s RLODC averages on 60.75.

Finch and Evans both made centuries in losing causes, at home to Hampshire and Essex.

Which is why Evans, while convinced Sussex have the parts they need, is unhappy with how the whole unit has clicked – and not just over the last three weeks.

He told The Argus: “We have got a great side on paper but on paper means nothing.

“We have had this side now for nearly two years and we haven’t qualified in one-day cricket and we didn’t qualify in T20.

“You can blame a lot of different things like the weather and conditions and things like that.

“But ultimately it is about going out there and winning key moments in games.

“We haven’t done that in this competition this year. In the T20 we need to step our game up. On paper doesn’t mean anything.”

By the time Essex took the points at The Saffron, realistic Sussex hopes of going through had just about slipped away.

The home defeat by Hampshire will perhaps be viewed as a greater turning point in their season.

That is an easy one to pinpoint given Sussex put themselves into a winning position going into the last 15 overs.

But they did at least bounce back from that – and in some style too with a win at Taunton which will be fondly remembered for some time.

Evans brought the subsequent let-down at home to Middlesex three days later more sharply into view when asked to assess the campaign.

That defeat was the first of three in succession with a couple of rain-offs in there too.

Evans said: “We played some really good cricket at the start.

“We beat what looks like a good Kent side – and hammered them really.

“We lost a close one against Hampshire which could have gone either way.

“Somerset was as good a win as you will see, scoring that many runs and that bowling performance was incredible.

“The one that really hurt was Middlesex because playing at home we should have a bit more knowledge about what the wicket is going to be doing.

“We want to play on the best wickets possible. We have got pace in our side and our batters like the ball coming on to the bat.

“Unfortunately, we just got the toss completely wrong and that is one of those things.

“I think there were times when we could have gone through in this competition.”

As those quarter-final hopes drifted away, at least there was a hint of what Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer can offer in the shortest format with the bat as well as the ball.

The IPL duo both helped Evans add late runs at Eastbourne.

Evans said: “Jof and CJ are brilliant strikers of the ball. We got them in at exactly the right time.

“CJ has not had 15 overs to bat in a long time.

“It was nice to see him get into his innings. Then Jof did what he did last year which is hit the ball.”

So now come the Aussies, to a sold-out 1st Central County Ground.

And then, from the white-ball perspective, it is time to tackleT20.

Luke Wright and David Wiese may be rested against the tourists but are expected to play when the Australian Indigenous XI visit Hove for men’s and women’s T20s on Friday.

Sussex will see that and the Ed Joyce testimonial at Arundel later this month as important practice for the real thing.

Gillespie has never promised success since arriving as Sussex boss but is big on learning and progressing.

And that is why, even in defeat, he saw evidence of progress being made by Evans with that ton.

Gillespie enjoyed the measured tempo of Evans’ knock after going in with his team in bother.

While that specific type of innings will be harder to replicate in T20, the bigger point was that his batsman had watched and learned, worked out a gameplan and then carried it out.

The Sussex coach told The Argus: “Lozza has got some starts and has looked good. He has just found ways to get out.

“I really enjoyed the tempo of his innings. He has looked to go really early in a couple of games and he has lost his wicket.

“We talk about how can we learn from our opposition and I think our batsmen took a lot out of watching how Colin Ingram played the other afternoon. How he kept his innings flowing nicely, took those calculated opportunities to impact, particularly early in the overs, and then just knocked it around and took the game nice and deep.

“Laurie spoke about that and spoke about getting in good positions and playing strong shots.

“The boys spoke about the wicket just being that little bit stopping, a bit slow.

“They talked about getting in position and playing through the line hard.

“I thought Lozza did that. He went out and did exactly what his plan was and that’s the most pleasing thing as a coach.

“He has a plan and he goes out and implements it and gets rewarded with some runs.

“Unfortunately, it was in a losing cause, which is a shame.”