Sussex v Middlesex 10-13 May

Scorecard as expected shows Nash Joyce Yardy Machan Cachopa Wright Brown Shahzad Robinson Magoffin Hobden with Finch 12.

What is it with us and no-balls? 20 in 36 overs. A quarter of their score so far is in extras. A very common theme for us for a good few years. Things like that need tightening. Good start though, a multitude of obligatory no-balls aside.

Extras missed out on a ton due to running out of partners, hard lines extras. It may have been a maiden ton too but I don't know that. Looks like we've decided the order of the day with the bat is to attack. What does that tell us about the track? Not a lot from where I am, so anyone have a thought or two on the strip? I agree massively with S&F - I'm sure it won't be lost on the members and everyone on here that our no-ball count has been ridiculously high for frigging ages.

I don't know the record number of extras in an innings, but about 60 years ago Victoria scored 647 against Tasmania without any extras.  I believe that the highest number of extras in a test innings is 76.

If Shahzad hadn't been injured we might have kept them down to around 200; he was the pick of the seamers until his injury.

Of the other bowlers Magoffin was Magoffin; but Ollie Robinson and Hobden offered very different responses to the additional workload caused by Shahzad being hors de comat.

I was really looking forward to seeing Hobden after reports that he bowled superbly (but without luck) v Durham. Instead he had a day he will want to forget but which will probably give him nightmares; his pace down, his line all over the place and his lengths never quite right - all of which probably stemmed from his inability to keep his foot behind the line. It was a performance lacking discipline and to bowl 11 no balls (22 runs) in 16 overs makes it very hard to pick him again for the first XI until Jon Lewis has helped him iron out the problem. It would be folly to select him for the T20 game on Friday night; if he bowls like he did today he'll get slaughtered amid a flurry of over-stepping and free hits.

Ollie Robinson was as impressive as Hobden was poor. Doubt there are many days in his short cricketing life so far when he has had to bowl 21 overs. But he stuck at it manfully and his control seldom wavered. This lad is going to be a mainstay of Sussex teams for many years to come.

Could we have a spinner, too, and any opening batsmen you might not quite look the look of?

In reply to fraudster's questions about the pitch: it is mottled, has a few cracks, slightly green tinge, and should play lower and flatter as the game goes on, and the speed of this may be determined by the arrival and spread of the warm front. It is a good cricket wicket, like all those of Andy Mackay's new strips relaid in recent years, and it will find out batsman who aren't ready for anything other than featherbeds and will frustrate bowlers who don't have a good appreciation for the surface they find or are poor at adapting a tried and trusted technique - the one that won't work on more lively wickets. It isn't a bad or rogue wicket in any way.

Today all of these things happened and both teams are going to have to find a way to respond. There have been some truly awful shots played, not all by Middlesex players, and there has been some indifferent bowling. Hobden has had a shocker, but he has been steadily redressing since the practice game against Surrey and he probably needs to just spend a little while with someone sympathetic and observant finding out where in the basics of the game he is going wrong. It looks like the delivery stride is either too emphatic or pulling him off balance and that is causing the no-ball problem, which in turn makes him doubt other parts of the mechanics of his action, with awful results. He's far too good a bowler not to get through this and return stronger and better as a result.

Middlesex bowlers have issues too on the evidence of the last hour. Finn has plenty of pace - and don't listen to any stories suggesting that remedies to his stump-clipping have lost him that asset - but he has a kink and shimmy in his stride now that must make it very hard for him to get to the final pivot position. Harris looks a much better and more purposeful bowler than last year, though I found myself thinking " And you got 9 for how many?". Roland-Jones bowled with head and body in superb coordination - the pick of the bunch.

Championship cricket is so much fun when it is as imperfect as this. Real contests take place, on different levels: between the teams, between individuals wanting to be better known and respected, and between players and wicket, players and their own irrational thoughts about the game. Tomorrow is going to throw up lots of possibilities - Sussex to subside quickly, then a second-innings shoot-out; Sussex to pull together, have lots of cooling, head-clearing drinks on a day that gets warmer, drier and clearer, building up a big score; Middlesex breaking through early then being frustrated by some of the lower-order resistance that turns to outright attack that has been seen recently....so many options.

And today we had something else to contend with:

When suddenly Johnny gets the feeling he's being surrounded by
horses, horses, horses, horses
coming in in all directions
white shining silver studs with their nose in flames,
He saw horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses, horses.

62 extras, that's certainly 40 more runs conceded than we should have done!

Are none of our batsmen capable of building a substantial innings?