Sussex’s opening to the 2013 season

It has been a fascinating start to the season for Sussex. The new arrival of Chris Jordan seems to have been an extremely valuable one and the returning Rory Hamilton-Brown looks like he is finding his way. From a spectator’s point of view, Ed Joyce is captaining the side well and bringing the best out of the lads. For the new season, the hugely successful opening partnership of 2012 compiled of Joyce and Chris Nash has been changed as the young Luke Wells steps in to replace Joyce. This seems to be quite an usual move, considering how well Joyce and Nash worked together last year. My only guess to why this has been done would be to give Joyce more time to focus on captaincy. Wells is a very promising young batsman, however in the first match of the season against Yorkshire he struggled as he scored just 2. Ben Brown, Joyce and Nash excelled with the bat but they all fell short of their hundreds. Debutant Jordan shone with the ball, with match figures of 8-92, picking up six wickets in the first innings. Sussex went on to beat Yorkshire comfortably by an innings and 12 runs.

The second match of the season was very different for Wells. He scored an astonishing double-century as he reached 208 including 26 fours and one six. Sussex made 526 in their only innings but the game finished in an entertaining draw. As Sussex were frustrated by the batsmen of Surrey, in particular Vikram Solanki who scored 83 in Surrey’s second innings. Jordan impressed again with a five wicket haul in the first innings whilst Surrey’s Gary Wilson got a century.

The next match saw Sussex take on last year’s champions Warwickshire. Warwickshire batted first and made an impressive 453 as Varun Chopra scored 87 and Jonathan Trott really showed his class but fell just short of his century with 96. The wickets were shared around for Sussex as new man Jordan took four. In reply, Sussex batted very well and made 421-7 before the game finished in an inevitable draw. Wells copied Trott in getting 96 and Brown also did well again as he scored an unbeaten 82.

After that, Sussex started their campaign in the YB40 tournament. They took on Worcestershire at Hove. Worcestershire batted first and made a competitive total of 245-9 as their captain Daryl Mitchell scored a century. In reply, Sussex struggled; Nash and Wells fell early. RHB(Rory Hamilton-Brown) and Matt Prior looked to be building some sort of a partnership but after they fell in fairly quick succession, it just never really happened for Sussex. The only real contribution came from Michael Yardy who scored 45. Sussex eventually slumped to 154 all out after just 31.5 overs. Worcestershire claimed victory by a huge 91 runs.

A few days later and Sussex were back in championship. They faced Derbyshire at Derby. Derbyshire made 223 in their first innings. In response Sussex did very well and scored 401. Yardy smashed a huge 153 and Jordan who had only previously shown in class with his bowling, proved he could also bat as he achieved 92. Derbyshire fell to 219 in their second innings; Steve Magoffin bowled excellently as he took four wickets. Sussex quickly knocked off the required runs losing just one wicket to secure victory by 9 wickets.

Monday, 20^th May, saw Sussex travel to Holland to take on Netherlands in the YB40. Unfortunately, this match was ruined by the weather. The rain fell torrentially and just 10.2 overs were possible. The game finished without a result and both sides took 1 point.

Just a couple of days later, Sussex were back in their own county to face Somerset in the championship at Horsham. Sussex went into the game in definitely better form than Somerset but no one could have anticipated what happened at Horsham. Somerset won the toss and strangely chose to bat first. Somerset battled to 42-3; Magoffin took all of the three early wickets. Then the wickets really started to fall – and I mean, fall! Jordan jumped in to take Alexander Barrow for a duck but the day belonged to Magoffin. He tore Somerset apart. Somerset miserably slumped from 42-3 to 43-7! After just 22.4 overs Somerset were all out for 76. Joseph Buttler top scored with 22. Magoffin took a magnificent 8 wickets for a minuscule 20 runs! It was a bowling master class from the Australian, who has never been given a chance on the international stage. In reply, Sussex proved that the pitch wasn’t too bad as they scored 300. RHB scored a quickfire 77 which including two fantastic sixes. Somerset came back out and they knew they had to bat out of their skins. Sadly for them they didn’t do this. After an early battle from Marcus Trescothick and Alviro Petersen, Somerset scored just 106. Magoffin picked up four wickets to finish with unbelievable match figures of 12 wickets for 31 runs! Somerset’s failures meant that Sussex had wrapped up a romping victory in just a day and a half! Sussex won by an innings and 116 runs.

Last Sunday, Sussex were back at Horsham, in the YB40 against Kent. Sussex batted first and made an average score of 222-9. Yardy batted well again as he top scored with 42. In response, Kent were bowled out for 202 after 39.2 overs. Darren Stevens scored 51 but Kent just couldn’t quite get there in the end.

After five games in the LV County Championship, Sussex find themselves sitting top of the table and they still have a game in hand over Middlesex and Durham who sit in second and third. Sussex have started amazingly and are yet without a loss in the championship. In the YB40 competition, the opening hasn’t quite been as good for Sussex but they are still third in group A.

The next game for Sussex is on Thursday in the YB40, they will play Warwickshire at Hove.