Home v Worcestershire 19 - 22 April

Interesting chat with Jimmy Anyon on 'BBC Radio Sussex'.

Recovering from his op has been a slow haul. He's only just started running again this week
and this has been tentative. As to returning to the side, Jimmy was honest and said he had
absolutely no idea when he would be fit.

As to this game Joyce is just out and things are not looking good for Sussex. In effect we are
154-5 where a 300 lead is looking unlikely unless Brown takes a strong foothold and either Zaidi
or Shahzad build a big partnership with him. This is not a game Cachopa will want to remember.

All credit to Worcestershire for this fight back. Kervezee is their man of the moment with 3 wickets
for 36 runs off 12 overs.

www.espncricinfo.com/county-championship-div1-2015/engine/match/804169.html

PS: Steve Hollis reminds us that the 'Hove Somme' has returned with Mills now the latest
casualty. Yardy is off sick and then add Nash, Prior, Hatchett and Hudson-Prentice alongside Anyon
to the list and the field hospital is keeping the nurses busy. The one good bit of news is Nash 
should be fit for Durham.

www.theargus.co.uk/sport/12901689.Sussex_facing_growing_strikeforce_injury_crisis/?ref=eb

Zaidi goes and Sussex are in trouble. At this rate, be lucky to reach a lead of 250 which must be an absolute minimum. Shahzad
is a capable bat and may bring us 20 or 30 runs. The wicket is taking spin. Not sure whether this is the pitch Andy Mackay had
hoped for.

Three days of absolute garbage from Sussex with only Matt Machan emerging from this match with any credit. Forget the title it is a relegation battle for Sussex.

Yorkshire beat this lot with half a team missing.

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What positives are there to be taken out of this game?

Why have we produced a spinners track when we don't have any spinners?

Outplayed since lunch on day 1 it has been a dismal performance from Sussex. Worcestershire have all day and 10 wickets to score 200 which should be a piece of cake.

If we can't beat Worcestershire we have real problems as they are the weakest team in the division.

Enjoyable but disappointing day at Hove as this game slipped inexorably away from Sussex. Apart from Machan in the first session on day one, Worcestershire have consistently been the better side.

Having witnessed the greenest of green seaming April wickets at Chelmsford on Sunday, I was staggered two days later to step out of spring and into August and to find Hove transformed into a spinners paradise. Very strange wicket for Sussex to have prepared when they don't have a top-class spinner in the side.

For Sussex to win from here they will have to bowl exceptionally well and Worcs will have to bat very poorly. One of those options won't be enough; it will require a combination of the two.

Was going to go tomorrow but will be staying at home as I expect Worcs to proceed sedately to a comfortable mid-afternoon victory.

Andy Mackay felt that it's condition was perhaps "a day early" for his ideal standard, and that the fourth day might see some of the
early indentations hardening a little. 

This is what Andy Mackay told hhs on day 2. The pitch has been 'out of the ordinary' for an April match where the seamers have
seemingly missed out. Sunny weather and little recent rain could be the answer. For the usual spicy phall Hove pitch of April has
transformed itself into a mild korma.

More than a bit odd, fraudster. For example, if you're a gardener you wouldn't expect to be daily watering your crops in April: that's the month of showers, if you recall, yet this year everyone who grows potatoes will tell you that they have been watering about a month earlier than they've ever done before. I think that was the point of Grounders comments, that "normal" standards haven't quite worked out that way. In your normal parlance, that's the way it goes. Next week may see torrential rain and every pitch then will be slippery on top with a bone-hard subsoil. That's one of the vagaries of the game, that we can't control the weather, however much the ECB may prescribe in section and sub-section how the wicket should be prepared.

The ideal wicket should do as you say, take turn at the end, not favour seamers too much from the start, and give batsmen a reasonable chance. I think this wicket hasn't been very far adrift from that standard - 1071 runs for 30 wickets in 3 days suggests everyone got a fair crack.  I missed out watching today but having seen the first two I'd be very surprised if it is the spinners paradise that borderman suggested. I think that the result will be a lot more closely contested and will offer him a bottle of his favourite tipple (note: proprietary blends only, no obscure vintage single malts) if his depressing prognosis is confirmed!