An impressive individual performance from Daniel Fallins wasn’t enough to help Sutherland overcome high flying Sydney University, with the round 10 defeat seeing the Sharks slip to 10th on the table.
Sutherland were looking to maintain their hunt for a top six spot against the competition leaders in the Saturday-Sunday clash at Glenn McGrath Oval, Caringbah.
Sharks captain Chris Williams won the toss and sent the visitors in and was rewarded with the early wicket of former Test opener Ed Cowan for 15, caught by Kyle Brockley off the bowling of Jake Wilson.
But that brought NSW representative Ryan Carters to the crease, as he joined with Uni captain Nick Larkin to put on a 222-run partnership for the second wicket.
Larkin made 129 before he was dismissed by Sibghat Khan, with Carters remaining unbeaten on 167.
Young leg-spinner Fallins picked up the wickets of Damien Mortimer (37), Greg Mail (4) and former St George batsman Ashton May (19) to finish with 3-116 from his 27 overs.
Sydney University declared at 5-395, leaving Sutherland a daunting run chase.
The hosts got off to a decent start, reaching 41 without loss before Jarryd Biviano was trapped leg before wicket by former Sutherland spinner Devlin Malone for 13.
But a steady flow of wickets had Sutherland reeling at 6-134 before they were eventually bowled out for 279.
Ben Joy was the best of the Sydney University bowlers, finishing with 5-53.
Peter Saroukos top scored for Sutherland with 67, while Fallins (64) peeled off an aggressive half century to add to his three wickets which moved him into the top 10 wicket-takers in the competition.
Sutherland face a tough trip to Old Kings Oval for day one of their two-day, round 11 clash with Parramatta on Saturday.
Meanwhile, Sutherland will face Bankstown in the limited overs quarter finals on January 29.