Sussex vs Nottinghamshire: Match review

A solid half-century from Ben Brown secured a draw for Sussex at home to Nottinghamshire.

The visitors batted first and made an impressive 356 after recovering from 112-6. Samit Patel top scored with an immense 157. Ajmal Shahzad also chipped in with a valuable 56. Chris Jordan impressed again with the ball for Sussex as he took 6 wickets for 97 runs.

In reply, the hosts scored 306 as both Ed Joyce and Luke Wells scored 59. Harry Gurney took four wickets for Nottinghamshire, including a magical hat-trick claiming the wickets of Ben Brown, James Anyon and Monty Panesar.

Nottinghamshire then made 330, which included a fine innings from James Taylor who fell just shy of a century for 97. Paul Franks also batted well, lower down the order as he smashed 78 off just 76 balls which included 12 fours and 1 six. This set Sussex a huge and rather impossible 380 to win.

Sussex had to bat solidly to see out the last day. Luke Wells fell first with 23 runs on the board. Michael Yardy came in and he went along steadily with Chris Nash, but the last ball before lunch saw Yards knick one behind to Chris Read off the bowling of Franks. Joyce then went with the score on 95. Chris Nash fell victim to a yorker from Shahzad and then Luke Wright was out soon after for a duck. Sussex were 112-5 and looked in trouble and they still had a long time to bat. Not too long after tea, Rory Hamilton-Brown was bowled by Shahzad for 23 and the score was 153-6. Around the ground, the groans erupted and the worry kicked in.

But luckily for Sussex, Ben Brown stayed strong and produced a top class half-century. He played sensibly, and dispatched the  bad balls. Chris Jordan also did well to hold up the other end and score 28. Sussex finished on 223-6 and both sides take away their 3 points for the draw plus their bonus points.

Sussex remain top of the table and will travel up to Lord’s to take on Middlesex later in the week.