ANOTHER TOUGH SUMMER

Three wins in three seasons of Championship cricket tells its own story and although Sussex had the minor satisfaction of lifting themselves off the bottom place they had occupied in 2021 it was the flimsiest of consolations.

It was hard not to sympathise with coach Ian Salisbury, who left his position at the end of the season, the club having admitted that the experiment of red and white-ball coaches had not worked. Salisbury was never able to name his strongest bowling attack and while the absences of Ollie Robinson and Jofra Archer were to be expected (Robinson played three games, Archer none as he recovered from a stress fracture in his back), Jack Carson, Steve Finn and George Garton spent large parts of 2022 on the treatment table as well, robbing Sussex of new-ball nous and a spin threat.

That left Sussex too often with an underpowered bowling attack and this during a summer when the sun shone, pitches were relatively benign, and batters made hay. No bowler took more than 20 wickets (only five bowlers took more than ten) and it was only in the last game that the ever-willing Sean Hunt overtook Robinson to finish leading-wicket taker with 18.

Sussex were often out of contention after their opponents’ first innings, conceding ten totals of more than 400 including five scores of 500-plus. Robinson claimed two of the meagre total of four five-wicket hauls with one of four bowlers signed on loan from other counties - Jack Brooks of Somerset - claiming another to help set up the solitary success against Derbyshire, the first in front of supporters at Hove for nearly three years.

As well as Brooks, Sussex brought in Aaron Beard from Essex, Hampshire’s Mason Crane and Grant Stewart from Kent in the opening weeks of the season with mixed results. With Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohamed Rizwan contracted for the first part of the summer Sussex didn’t have the option to recruit a bowler from overseas until later on when Pakistan seamer Faheem Ashraf arrived for the final four games in September but made little impact. With that in mind, the decision to bring in a bowler to replace Rizwan in 2023 made sense. Sussex’s original choice was the West Indian Jayden Seales, but he pulled out with injury and in January the club recruited Nathan McAndrew, the Australian pace bowler who took 20 wickets in seven appearances for Warwickshire last year.

While Sussex didn’t bowl well enough consistently enough as a unit their batting was better. Pujara only played eight games but rattled off five hundreds and was a class act on and off the pitch. Tom Haines missed matches after breaking his hand and made 528 of his 941 runs in three innings. Ali Orr passed 1,000 runs and his brilliant 198 against Glamorgan in the final game at Hove was the innings of the season. Tom Clark improved too while Oli Carter contributed steadily in the middle order.

The solitary win in June against Derbyshire was unexpected, and more enjoyable because of that. Sussex chased 342 in 76 overs with 17 balls to spare, Rizwan providing acceleration at the end. Such a scenario looked unlikely at tea on the third day when Derbyshire led by 214 after Sussex lost their last three first-innings wickets in four balls, but the Peakites elected to bat again and Brooks, in an excellent spell down the slope, stymied their pursuit of quick runs with five wickets. With 14 overs lost to drizzle on the final day, Derbyshire had no chance of batting Sussex out of the game and Sussex took control.

There were a lot of painful watches too, not least against Leicestershire at Hove. After Haines’ hand was broken Tom Alsop led the way with a chanceless, five-hour 150 in Sussex’s highest total for seven years before South African pair Colin Ackermann and Wiaan Mulder rewrote the record books with maiden double hundreds, although both were dropped. Their 477 was the highest fifth wicket stand in Championship history, while Sussex conceded the highest total in theirs (756-4). Leicestershire plundered 368 runs in two sessions before they declared with a lead of 168, but with no deterioration in the pitch Orr’s century eased any Sussex concerns.

Bruce Talbot

Umpires: Rob Bailey & Martin Saggers

Toss: Nottinghamshire, who elected to field

Result: Nottinghamshire won by 10 wickets