v. Warwickshire (H) Tue 18th to Fri 21st Sept 2018 CC

After playing in front of a big crowd on Saturday, half of which was dressed in a variety of costumes, Sussex return to the more sedate surroundings of a County Championship game at Hove. However, it is likely to be as fiercely contested as Saturday’s semi-final and final as this is Sussex’s last chance to have a chance of grabbing a promotion place. With two games left, the contenders are:

Warwickshire 207 pts
Kent 195 pts
Sussex 174 pts

Warwickshire play Sussex away and Kent at home.
Kent play Glamorgan at home and Warwickshire away
Sussex play Warwickshire at home and Northamptonshire away

Two wins are the only likely way of Sussex achieving promotion. Two wins would give Sussex a maximum of 222 points, but more realistically somewhere in the region of 218 perhaps. Warwickshire would need 6 bowling points and some batting points or a draw with Kent to eclipse Sussex unless Sussex scored the maximum of 222 or something very close. As for Kent, they must start as huge favourites at home to bottom placed Glamorgan. Assuming they win that game, it might be that we are cheering on Kent at Edgbaston on the last day of the season.

Whatever the outcome, the defeat at Durham makes promotion tough and it doesn't get tougher than the visit of leaders Warwickshire. Sussex drew at Warwickshire in the first game of the season and performed well in a rain affected match. David Wiese scored the first century of the 2018 County Championship in the game. Disappointingly, Warwickshire held on for a draw.

Warwickshire have ended the season strongly with three innings wins in their last four games. In the other game, Durham clung on for a draw with 8 wickets down. In the batting department, Ian Bell will be looking to pass 1000 County Championship runs as he needs another 106 to achieve that milestone. Jonathan Trott is only 99 runs behind Bell.

Warwickshire’s top wicket taker in the County Championship is Jeetan Patel with 53 wickets, but Olly Stone, Keith Barker and Chris Wright have all claimed over 30 wickets. Chris Woakes who played in Warwickshire’s last County Championship game will not be playing at Hove this week.

Only one result will suffice in this game if promotion is to be achieved. Can Sussex bounce back from their defeat at Durham and remain undefeated at home in the County Championship this year? We will see.

Our attack seems a little jaded today

If only Worcestershire had batted as badly on Saturday as well.

Hmm. Unless things change soon, we are going to be batted out of this game. Bell & Trott are well past it, of course!

So much for our much vaunted bowling attack!

Funny old game

Bears were 420/4 then lost 6 wickets for 19 runs.

Salt and Finch didn’t trouble the scorer and Wells and Briggs were back in the changing room before Burgess made a quick fire 46 before falling to the new England ODI bowler Ollie Stone. This left us effectively 86/6 as Haines remains out of the game after suffering an injury to his ankle while bowling yesterday.

That brought Brown and Wiese to the crease who both passed 50 and the 100 partnership at 4.7 an over.

224/5 (6) at the close still requiring 66 to avoid the follow-on.

Paul
Unfortunately I’m not at the ground tomorrow but thanks for asking.
Regards
Joe