Delray Rawlins is a reserve for the Sussex First team and watched his teammates have an excellent morning session, Gloucestershire fought back on the first day of the final Specsavers' County Championship game of the season, at the Brightside Ground, Bristol.
Chris Dent showed terrific resilience throughout the first day on a wicket that provided the visiting bowlers with plenty of lateral movement.
He saw seven partners depart before Gloucestershire had reached 100 and then, with Payne at his side, led the host county into an unlikely, but gratefully accepted position of relative strength, at 201 for 7.
Happy to field first, Sussex made up for a delayed start by taking three Gloucestershire wickets inside 15 overs. Chris Jordan bowled Gareth Roderick (0) in the sixth over before Steve Magoffin added 19-year-old debutant James Bracey (2), two overs later, and Ollie Robinson bowled George Hankins (2) at 12 for 3 in the 15th over.
New Zealander Hamish Marshall, in his last game for the county he has represented so well for the past 10 years, provided temporary resistance, but eventually perished, lbw to Magoffin for 14 at 38 for 4.
Boundaries were hard to come by and though Phil Mustard hit an early four through extra cover, it was to be his only scoring shot. Magoffin, with his tail up, found the outside edge of the wicket keeper's bat and Sussex keeper Ben Brown took the catch.
At 42 for 5, Sussex must have felt they would be batting sooner rather than later. However, the indomitable Dent stuck to his task and despite losing sixth wicket partner Jack Taylor (5) at 68 for 6, he joined forces with Craig Miles and then David Payne, to guide Gloucestershire towards a total that at one stage, looked nothing more than a pipe dream.
Miles helped himself to 20 before falling to a smart leg side catch by Brown off Jofra Archer, at 97 for 7, and thereafter, Dent reached his 50 off 137 balls, with seven fours.
Better known for taking wickets than scoring runs, Payne played sensibly at the opposite end and having reached tea, on 143 for 7, Gloucestershire increased the tempo in the final session with Dent finishing the day unbeaten on 86 and Payne 48 not out.
When bad light forced the players off, with 28 overs of the day remaining, the eighth wicket pair had not only taken the score through the 200 barrier, but had posted their century stand, in less than 23 overs.
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