Sussex will bring in a new all-rounder to help offer their flagging season a final flourish.

But the as yet unidentified new man will not feature in the Royal London One-Day Cup as the county bowed out of the 50-overs competition, albeit with a fight, last night.

Sussex went down by nine runs at home to Hampshire, who set 268-9, to remain bottom of the group.

Ben Brown and Chris Nash looked like they could complete a notable run chase as they added 125 in 17 overs for the fifth wicket and kept the required rate hovering just below ten through the closing overs.

But Brown perished for 62 to a superb, instinctive one-handed catch above his head by his wicketkeeping counterpart Lewis McManus with 35 needed off 21 balls.

Brad Wheal then conceded just three off the 48th over as the previously in-touch Nash suddenly found it impossible to get bat on ball.

Sussex needed 17 off the last over and, though Nash straight drove Wheal for four, the bowler quickly regained control.

Nash ended on 69 not out as Sussex made 259-6.

It was another frustrating night for Sharks but, after an honest assessment of defeat, Mark Davis revealed plans to bring in a replacement for departed New Zealander batsman Ross Taylor – but not a like-for-like replacement.

The Sussex boss said: “We are certainly going to get somebody to come in. I’m probably not allowed to mention who that is!

“But it will be an all-rounder who will come in after the CPL. It will be for County Championship cricket and, if we got through in the T20, he would play in that as well.”

This was another case of what might have been for Sharks.

Jimmy Adams top-scored for Hampshire with 92 before feathering a catch to Brown at the wicket as he looked to guide a short ball from George Garton through third man.

Garton (3-40 off ten overs) and Jofra Archer (1-46 off ten) emerged with credit with the ball and Chris Jordan superbly ran out Adam Wheater (42) from cover with one stump to aim at.

Ryan McLaren added 46 not out off 39 balls at the death to give Hampshire what turned out to be a defendable target and went on to take 3-54.

For a long time, the Sussex reply was somewhat sedate.

Luke Wright did most to add momentum and his departure for 46 looked a turning point. Having played and missed a couple of times, Wright mis-timed a full toss from Wheal to mid-on, where Gareth Andrew took a good catch very low down.

Wright looked crestfallen and there was a notable drift to exits from the stands. Still it looked like Brown and Nash could grab just a second win – until McManus, quite literally, stuck his hand up as a Hampshire matchwinner.

Davis added: “It was a tough one to lose. I thought we did a lot of the game well but we didn’t quite do enough. Chris and Ben put on a good partnership and got us into the game.

“We said we wanted to take the game deep and we did that but we didn’t quite get over the line.

“We had a good practice this week and we were really committed. I can’t question how committed we were.

“We gave everything and just weren’t good enough.”