Sussex CCC - A New Era

[HampshireFan]

Sussex CCC – A New Era

As I’m sure many of you will know and to the surprise of many, Sussex found themselves relegated to division 2 on the final day of the 2015 season after local rivals Hampshire pulled off what was described as ‘the great escape’.

The club has had lots of success in recent years in all formats winning the County Championship in 2003, 2006 and 2007, the One Day Cup in 2006 and 2009 and the T20 cup in 2009.

My task will be to guide Sussex back to glory, these are goals I have set out for the coming season.
Specsavers County Championship: - Gain promotion back to division one

Royal London One Day Cup: - Qualify for the knock-out stages of the competion but use as a good platform to introduce some of the younger players to regular first team cricket

Natwest T20 Blast: - Once again make it out of the group stage to the quarter-finals

[HampshireFan]

Our Squad

The end of the 2015 season saw a few faces leave the club, Ashar Zaidi moved to Essex, Chris Liddle moved on to Gloucestershire as well as the retirement of Steffan Piolet, James Anyon and club legend Michael Yardy.

There was also the tragic news that young fast bowler Matthew Hobden was found dead in January who I am certain would have gone on to achieve big things in the world of cricket.

We have promoted three youth players to our squad, George Garton, Phil Salt and Stuart Whittingham and it is hoped they will all get a chance to play in the first team at some point this season but our most notable addition comes from local rivals Hampshire as we welcome Danny Briggs to Hove.

Ben Brown will captain the four day team whilst Luke Wright will captain both limited over sides.

Full Squad for 2016 season

Name	Role	Average
Chris Nash	Opening Batsmen	38.21
Ed Joyce	Opening Batsmen	47.47
Luke Wells	Opening Batsmen	33.07
Phillip Salt	Opening Batsmen
Craig Cachopa	Batsmen/WK	38.61
Matt Machan	Batsmen	34.33
Harry Finch	Batsmen	10.00
Fynn Hudson-Prentice	Batsmen	7.50
Luke Wright	Batsmen	40.84
Ben Brown	Wicket-Keeper	35.41
Ross Taylor	Overseas Batsmen	42.47
Chris Jordan	All Rounder	21.79/31.60
Will Beer	Leg Spinner	39.92
Danny Briggs	SLA Bowler	32.14
George Garton	LFM Bowler
Lewis Hatchett	LFM Bowler	35.06
Tymal Mills	LF Bowler	36.51
Steve Magoffin	RFM Bowler	23.70
Michael Rippon	SLA Bowler	44.29
Oliver Robinson	RFM Bowler	24.72
Ajmal Shahzad	RFM Bowler	33.48
Stu Whittingham	RFM Bowler	109.00
David Wiese	Overseas T20 Only
Mustafizur Rahman	Overseas T20 Only

[HampshireFan]

Match Preview
The first game of our campaign is at home, a three day friendly against Leeds MCCU.

This is a good opportunity to give our likely starting eleven a run out, giving the batsmen a chance to get bat on ball and the bowlers a chance to get a few overs under their belt.

The pitch looks good for batting and the weather is well set so the aim will be to win toss, bat big, bat once.

I have picked four specialist bowlers to bowl the majority of the overs with Luke Wright and Chris Nash able to bowl a few if needed

The team is as follows:-

Ed Joyce

Chris Nash

Ross Taylor

Craig Cachopa

Matt Machan

Luke Wright

Ben Brown (C)(WK)

Ajmal Shahzad

Oli Robinson

Danny Briggs

Steve Magoffin

[HampshireFan]

Leeds Tail Frustrates Sussex After Mammoth Score

Sussex put on a good show in their first game in 2016 having lost the toss in good conditions for batting. They restricted Leeds MCCU to 252 in their first innings despite a good start from the visitors reaching 105-2 in the morning session but regular wickets in the afternoon session saw them fall to 252-9 at tea largely due Steve Magoffin (3-42) and Oli Robinson (3-62). The visitors then lost their final wicket straight after tea without another run being scored.




Sussex started positively; Chris Nash smashed boundaries to all parts but Ed Joyce struggled to get going and was then bowled for 6. Overseas signing Ross Taylor looked promising with back to back boundaries could only manage 12 on his Sussex debut. Nash continued positively and passed 50 but in the final over before close he played a wild shot and fell for 55 as the hosts closed day one on 96-3.

Craig Cachopa and Matt Machan came out knowing they had to bat well as a couple of early wickets would put the game in favour of the visiting University side and they did just that putting on a partnership of 132 runs before Cachopa edged a ball to the keeper on 78. With the score now 216-4 Sussex looked to go up a gear as Machan was joined by Luke Wright at the crease as they looked to up the scoring rate before the later was caught on the boundary after an explosive 41. Machan soon followed his team mate as an over later he miscued a ball which went straight up and he had to depart for 95.

With the score on 294-6 Sussex looked to increase their lead and they did just that with a mammoth 7^th wicket partnership of 246 between Ben Brown and Ajmal Shahzad (121) before Shahzad fell lbw to Adam Clarkson (2-158). Oli Robinson (57*) came to support Ben Brown and the pair bludgeoned another hundred run partnership before Brown’s superb knock came to an end scoring 179 of 166 balls, the home side then declared immediately on 652-8, 400 ahead with two and a half sessions on the final day remaining.


The game was set for a fine finish as Sussex looked to wrap up victory and it seemed to be looking in their favour as Steve Magoffin picked up two quick wickets as the visitors reached 55-3 at lunch day 3.

Leeds lost another wicket early in the afternoon session but Anthony Exley (43) and Adam Clarkson (42) looked to steady the ship but both fell shortly before tea to leave Leeds 163-6 with it all to play for going into the final session.

Magoffin (4-55) picked up his 4^th wicket after tea but some courageous batting from Anthony Henman (39*) and Andrew Tinkler (40*), Leeds closed the day out on 242-7 to draw the game. Perhaps Sussex should have declared sooner but the batsmen and bowlers got a good run out but credit has to be given to the Leeds batsmen for hanging on in a tricky couple of hours of play.

[MarksNotts]

Good Story, nothing worse than stubborn tail enders Can't believe Shahzad got a century!!!!

[HampshireFan]

Match Preview

Northamptonshire V Sussex

We will start with the same eleven that played the first game against Leeds MCCU.

There is a little bit of cloud around on day 1 but the rest of the days look like clear blue sky, the pitch looks a reasonable which for the batsmen so I would be keen to win the toss and bat.

The opposition
Northants have some dangerous players, Richard Levi can be very dangerous with the bat and Ben Duckett is a very talented young player. They are also bolstered by the addition of Monty Panesar who joins a strong bowling line up.

Teams

Northants	Sussex
Ben Duckett	Ed Joyce
Rob Newton	Chris Nash
Richard Levi	Ross Taylor
Adam Rossington	Craig Cachopa
Rob Keogh	Matt Machan
Alex Wakely	Luke Wright
Steven Crook	Ben Brown
Rory Kleinveldt	Ajmal Shahzad
Olly Stone	Oli Robinson
Azharullah	Danny Briggs
Monty Panesar	Steve Magoffin

[HampshireFan]

Alex Wakely Shines For Northants

Runs for Alex Wakely guided Northants passed Sussex in a low scoring game at the county ground.

Sussex won the toss and chooses to bat first on what looked to be a good wicket but they soon found themselves in trouble at 39-3 after some fiery bowling from Azharullah with both openers and overseas player Ross Taylor back in the dressing room. Craig Cachopa and Matt Machan looked to get things back on track but then Cachopa was bowled and Sussex reached lunch 95-4.
Monty Panesar showed he still has his eyes on an England place sweeping through the Sussex middle order as the visitors reach 200-7 at tea, Matt Machan the only batsmen showing any resistance.

After tea, Matt Machan reached his century but soon after Azharullah ripped through the tail and Sussex were all out for 230.




With an hour of the evening session left Steve Magoffin and Oli Robinson pick up three quick wickets as they restrict the hosts to 60-3 at close of play on day one.
Day two brings more wickets, Magoffin takes Rossington (22) first ball of the day before Keogh (19), Crook (27) and Kleinveldt (21) build partnerships to support Alex Wakely as he holds the innings together in similar fashion to the way Machan did for Sussex, unfortunately Wakely is out lbw to Briggs for 99 much to the delight of the Sussex team as Northants close on 237 all out, a lead of just 7.



With it all evenly posed Sussex had a better start to their innings at 95-2 before 3 quick wickets saw them 128-5. Things never really improved for the visiting side as wickets continued to fall regularly, Monty once again picked up 3 more towards the back end of the innings and this time Sussex were all out for 252, a lead of 245.



Sussex started well with the new ball, reducing the hosts to 21-2 but they dug in and useful runs from Duckett (45) Rossington (39) Keogh (39) saw them to 151-4 at the close of day 3.
Despite Keogh and Crook falling early on the final morning captain Alex Wakely (59*) and Rory Kleinveldt (43*) saw the hosts home with 4 wickets in hand reaching 249-6.

[hammerbm]

be interested to see how this pans out as i did a random draw for div 2 teams and got sussex..drew v northants but first day almost completely rained off.good luck.

[HampshireFan]

Match Review

I felt we were 100 runs short in the first innings, the pitch didn’t seem to be doing that much and it just needed someone else to stick in with Machan, although Northants bowled well, Azharullah and Panesar especially but I think some poor batting was also to blame for the lack of runs.

On the whole I thought we bowled well, Magoffin and Robinson looked excellent although Danny Briggs was rather expensive but he did pick up a couple of wickets.

In our second innings I think it was much the same, we never really got going and just needed a couple of batsmen to knuckle down rather than score then get starts.

We didn’t bowl badly in the Northants 2^nd innings and for the first hour I thought we had a chance with regular breakthroughs but once they started stringing together a few partnerships in the middle order the game went away from us quickly.

My player of the match would have to be Matt Machan for his century in the first innings which at least gave us a chance.

Top 3 Run Scores	Top 3 Wicket Takers
Matt Machan – 217 @ 72.33	Steve Magoffin – 12 @ 16
Ben Brown – 213 @ 71	Oli Robinson – 9 @ 30
Ajmal Shahzad – 160 @ 53.33	Ajmal Shahzad – 6 @ 39

[Dan87]

Good read so far. I'd expect you to gain promotion from Division 2 as Sussex have a strong squad, be interesting to see how you fare.

[HampshireFan]

Apologies for the lack of posts lately, work is taking up most my time at the moment but I will try to keep posting as frequently as possible.

Match Preview

Sussex v Essex

Sussex

Once again, we will play the same eleven as the last two games although with Luke Wells and Harry Finch scoring big runs in the opening game of the season for the 2nds a few of the batsmen will need to play well or may find themselves losing their place.


Essex

The opposition look strong with the inclusion of England opener Alistair Cook, with the experience of Ravi Bopara, James Foster, David Master, Graham Napier and co they look a strong team on paper so I expect a tough game.

Teams

Sussex	Essex
Ed Joyce	Alistair Cook
Chris Nash	Nick Browne
Ross Taylor	Ryan Ten-Doeschate
Craig Cachopa	Jesse Ryder
Matt Machan	Ravi Bopara
Luke Wright	Tom Westley
Ben Brown	James Foster
Ajmal Shahzad	Graham Napier
Oli Robinson	Matt Quinn
Danny Briggs	David Masters
Steve Magoffin	Jamie Porter

The pitch looks good and the weather set fair for all 4 days, once again I’d be keen to win the toss and put runs on the board.