v Derbyshire (H) Sun 26 to Wed 29 Jun CC

There’s no “hate” Andrew, and certainly not of the players. Amazing how you went missing for weeks as our T20 campaign crumbled, the one thing you’d been clinging to to try and defend Squeaky and Grubby.

To be fair it wasn't just one magnificent innings but three (also Alsop and Rizwan) as the target could have been chased down without their vital contributions. 

I was hoping to enjoy a rare, overdue and more than welcome victory without any deep analysis, but anyone who sees this victory as either an endorsement of what has preceded in the past two and a half seasons or a positive sign that everything is fine is with the greatest respect deluded.

Derbyshire were in a position where they couldn't lose, yet their tactical naivety or over confidence or combination of both allowed Sussex to grab victory when they were staring down the jaws of yet another defeat.

Do I hope this is a springboard for further victories? Yes. Do I hope that having tasted victory and done it by chasing down 342 runs in less than a day builds confidence within this young inexperienced side? Most definitely. Do I believe the current set up will get us back to where we need to be? Let's talk again when we see wins becoming a regular occurrence, due to our dominance of matches and not errors by the opposition.

There were three key moments in this match. Derbyshire failing to enforce the follow on. The Umpire not giving Madsen out LBW when he was plumb on 34 and the afternoon session on the second day.

The first two were outside our control. One worked in our favour, the other didn't. The last highlights where this team is and why we shouldn't get carried away with this one result.

Adrian Harms described us as rudderless during that particular passage of play. In an earlier post, I believe I said we had no plan or idea. Basically, we didn't have a clue how to bowl them out, Finn took over the captaincy and we ended up giving their ninth wicket pair an almost run a ball century partnership. Even if you cant get them out, you find ways to make it difficult for them. You make scoring difficult. You do something, you don't just offer up as many runs as they want until they see fit to declare. If we had lost the match, this is where it would have been lost.
Reduce their first innings score by 70 and add another hour into the match and we would still have been in the game at that stage and the issue of a follow on wouldn't even be a factor.

I genuinely don't believe you can describe anyone on here as a 'hater'. Yes, emotions sometimes get the better of some individuals and at times comments (I hope through frustration) directed at certain players and management most definitely go beyond reasonable or in my humble view acceptable.

The bottom line is as supporters we get frustrated and given what we have seen and endured over the past two and a half seasons, I don't believe that should come as a surprise.

We have a strong core of players coming through, but mistakes continue to be made in recruitment, selection and tactics. Our last two victories were more down to the opposition than our own endeavours. Any strategy needs at the minimum tweaking.

Quite simply, there needs to be changes to the current set up if we want performances like we have seen this afternoon to become the norm.

Most importantly, today's victory should be enjoyed by all and not taken as an opportunity to score cheap points.

Read the vile stuff aimed at Rob and Keith on this very board

Well there you have it people - what we've seen over the last 15 months, including today's stunning victory, is better than office expectations. 

To repeat, what you have seen from Sussex CCC over the last 15 months, is better than what was expected. Truest thing Gordy's ever said.

 

 

Well done Sussex.
Wont mention any individuals, as it was a good team effort; irrespective of Derbyshire's madness.
This should spur on the whole squad.
Keep going, it wont be easy, and let's hope in 3 years time we will all say "Remember when...."