Rebuilding Sussex

[CrazyCaptain101]

Hey everyone, and welcome to my new story where I attempt to rebuild Sussex. The first season I expect us to hopefully be promoted into Division 1 of the County Championship. Our limited overs sides seem pretty good too, so I want to do well in those too. So without further ado, let's get right into it!

Season 1 Signings

As always, I try to sign a youth player to develop, and I see 18 year old batter Tim Charlton, who I offer a 3 year deal. His 2nd XI averages of 54.91, 35.87, and 30.95 lead me to think he has a bright future. With no other options that I like, I invest more money into coaching and youth players.

Season 1 Squad Overview

Our first class lineup will look very good, with Tom Haines and Alistair Orr the opening pair, both incredible young players with great potential. When they're available, Steve Smith and Cheteshwar Pujara will make our batting lineup formidable, as they are both overseas seasoned pros. From there, our batting gets a bit fragile, but I'm hoping youth signing Tim Charlton can fit in at 5. Tom Alsop will most likely be our keeper, with Ollie Carter the back up. Our bowling attack looks good too, with Ollie Robinson, George Garton, and Ari Karvelas the leading bowlers.

In the one-day format, we will lose a lot of players to The Hundred, with Ravi Bopara, George Garton, Jofra Archer, and Tymal Mills all unavailable. As for the Blast, we have Shadab Khan as our overseas T20 signing.

[CrazyCaptain101]

Injury Update

Steven Finn - 3 weeks (broken finger)

Overseas Selections

Jofra Archer (IPL)
Henry Shipley (International)

[CrazyCaptain101]

Sussex v Durham

Sussex XI: T. Haines, A. Orr, C. Pujara, S. Smith (c), T. Alsop (+), T. Charlton, F. Hudson-Prentice, G. Garton, O. Robinson, A. Karvelas, J. Carson
Durham XI: A. Lees, M. Jones, S. Borthwick, D. Bedingham, B. de Leede, O. Robinson (+), D. Stevens, P. Coughlin, B. Raine, M. Potts, R. Toole

I win the toss and choose to bat on what looks to be a good deck for batting.

Our openers formed a handy 57 run stand before Haines fell. Pujara batted typically, with a gritty 57 before getting out to Potts, but Orr stood strong bringing up his century half an hour before Stumps. By the end of the day we had progressed to 276-2. I wanted to start to push the run-rate a bit, but I second-guessed my choice when Smith departs for 44. Ali Orr kept scoring and soon passed 150. A couple of quick wickets fell, and a collapse ensued before Garton and Robinson combined for a handy 34 run partnership. Soon enough we were bowled out for 391, but we had lost our last 7 wickets for a mere 83 runs.

We took 3 early wickets before Bedingham and de Leede dug in to get them to 155-3 at Stumps on Day 2. Bedingham's innings came to its end when Garton struck in the first over of the day. A flurry of wickets followed, and they were quickly bowled out for a mere 198.

I decided to enforce the follow-on, with good cloud cover for most of Day 3. Bedingham scored another 50 after their top order fell apart once again. De Leede fell just before Tea, leaving them 133-4, trailing by 60 runs. Karvelas got Robinson, before Bedingham and Stevens looked like they were going to take the game away from us. Carson struck, dismissing Bedingham and Stevens in back to back overs. Stumps came with them 240-7. After we took the new-ball on Day 4, they fell to pieces and set us a mere 103 to chase.

Haines and Orr easily chased it down in just 31.1 overs, with no chances even occurring.

Sussex 391 (A. Orr 151, C. Pujara 57, P. Coughlin 3-54) and 104-0 (A. Orr 50*, T. Haines 49*) defeated Durham 198 (D. Bedingham 79, G. Garton 5-47, O. Robinson 3-40) and 296 f/o (D. Bedingham 104, O. Robinson 3-42, F. Hudson-Prentice 3-82) by 10 wickets.

Man of the Match: Alistair Orr

[CrazyCaptain101]

Injury Update

Steve Smith is out for 3 weeks with a broken finger, so we'll need to replace him.

Sussex v Yorkshire

Sussex XI: T. Haines, A. Orr, C. Pujara (c), T. Alsop (+), B. Foreman, T. Charlton, F. Hudson-Prentice, G. Garton, O. Robinson, A. Karvelas, J. Carson
Yorkshire XI: J. Wharton, A. Lyth, D. Malan, S. Shakil, W. Fraine, G. Hill, J. Tattersall (+), D. Bess, M Milnes, M. Steketee, B. Coad

It's a batting pitch and they choose to bat first.

Lyth was dismissed early on by Garton but Malan and Wharton dig in before Lunch, with Wharton passing 50. They continued to dominate our attack, smacking seemingly endless boundaries before Malan finally got out for 102 after a 205 run stand just before Tea. Shakil scored a quickfire 55 before falling to the newball, but Wharton kept on scoring. He couldn't continue it and was bowled by Robinson for an outstanding 156 off 280. Day 1 ended with them in prime position at 385-4. The scoring didn't stop on day 2, even with two wickets falling in the first session they still put on 121 runs. They declared on a whopping 605-9, leaving us a massive task.

We survived to Tea, but Haines fell right after for a disappointing 12. Pujara's role as "The Wall" was on show as he helped Orr bring us to Stumps with no more wickets lost. 3 wickets fell in 8 overs before the two youngsters Foreman and Charlton held strong to get us to Lunch at 196-4. They were dismissed in back-to-back balls and a collapse followed, 4 wickets falling for a mere 9 runs. Karvelas and Carson batted for 87 minutes to give us a chance to draw the match.

After being asked to follow-on, we had a simple equation. 3 and a half sessions, 10 wickets in hand. The question was, could we survive? Haines failed again, but Orr and Pujara put up a fight and helped us fight to Stumps. Pujara had his stumps re-arranged by Bess, before Alsop and Orr batted out the rest of the session. 4 wickets in the first half of the second session left us reeling at 115-6. Garton couldn't survive but Robinson and Charlton got us to 137-7 at Tea. 20 minutes into the session and Robinson was clean bowled by Steketee, and Karvelas was out half an hour later. We had 70 minutes to survive with just Charlton and Carson out there. We got to the final half an hour, and the pitch had basically fully deteriorated. The final over came, and Steketee would bowl it. The first ball was full and straight, and Charlton kept it out. Steketee tried a bouncer but to no avail. The next two balls were poor and it looked like we could actually get home. And we did, with Charlton blocking out the full ball at the end, sealing a well-fought draw.

Yorkshire 605-9 (J. Wharton 156, D. Malan 102, J. Tattersall 89*, O. Robinson 4-89) drew with Sussex 254 (C. Pujara 66, A. Orr 64, M. Milnes 4-39, M. Steketee 4-64) and 189-6 f/o (T. Charlton 49*, D. Bess 5-66)

Man of the Match: James Wharton

[CrazyCaptain101]

Gloucestershire v Sussex

Gloucestershire XI: M. Harris, C. Dent, J. Bracey, O. Price, M. Hammond, G. van Buuren, J. Taylor, T. Lace (+), Z. Gohar, D. Payne, M. de Lange
Sussex XI: T. Haines, A. Orr, C. Pujara (c), T. Alsop (+), B. Foreman, T. Charlton, N. McAndrew, F. Hudson-Prentice, G. Garton, O. Robinson, A. Karvelas

Carson gets dropped after a poor run of form, with McAndrew replacing him. We lose the toss and are sent into bat on a tricky pitch.

Haines gets off to a good start and moves past 50 pretty fast, only to be dismissed for 52 just before Lunch. Pujara and Orr fall in the same over and all of a sudden we're 98-3. Alsop's poor form continued as he was bowled for 25. Charlton fell in the next over and we were 155-5. McAndrew and Foreman got us to Tea safely, both scoring 50, but Foreman departed just after the break. McAndrew went on the attack and almost got a century, falling for 96 in the last over of the day. They cleaned us up early on Day 2 for 308.

The rain came and washed out the rest of the first session. Dent got off the leash and scored a very quick 76 before Karvelas ended his innings. Harris and Bracey picked up where Dent left off and put on 105 more runs before Hudson-Prentice got Harris. The day ended with us just 42 runs ahead and still needing 8 wickets. We took the new ball and even though we took a couple of wickets, the runs didn't stop and they were 380-4 at Lunch. They batted most of the next session before rain came, and they somehow still added 86 runs! Karvelas cleaned up the tail but with them scoring 476, we were going to have to bat it out for a draw.

It looked like we would make it to Stumps without loss of a wicket, but van Buuren struck 2 balls before the end of the day, removing Orr for 12. Pujara and Haines put on a handy stand of 80 before Pujara was bowled and Haines ran himself out. After Lunch, we lost Foreman to a yorker but Alsop and Charlton stood strong for the next hour when Charlton nicked off. It looked like they had a chance when they got Alsop next over before the rain came again and washed out the rest of the match.

Sussex 308 (N. McAndrew 96, T. Haines 52, G. van Buuren 4-65, Z. Gohar 4-76) and 178-6 (T. Haines 64, G. van Buuren 3-24) drew with Gloucestershire 476 (O. Price 91, M. Harris 90, A. Karvelas 5-106).

Man of the Match: Zafar Gohar