da bet nacional： With the end result of a modest first innings lead secured, Sussex spentmuch of this day doing little more than trying to grind and claw its way ontop of Middlesex in the teams’ willing County Championship struggle atSouthgate
Staff and agencies29-Jul-2000With the end result of a modest first innings lead secured, Sussex spentmuch of this day doing little more than trying to grind and claw its way ontop of Middlesex in the teams’ willing County Championship struggle atSouthgate. Their slightly more resourceful opponents, meanwhile, used theoccasion first to prevent this deficit from extending to hefty proportionsand then to launch a spirited second innings assault on the back of theefforts of its best two batsmen.Aside from three forceful cuts from Michael Bevan in the opening over ofthe day, this was predominantly an occasion for the steady accumulation ofruns. The ray of hope offered by the Australian was dimmed in the secondover when Phil Tufnell (4/88) lured him out of his crease to have himstumped; ended with Middlesex grimly preserving its remaining seven secondinnings wickets; and generally offered little in the way of attackingshotmaking in between.For an action-filled day to have eventuated, the best prospects lay in theemergence of substantial contributions to the Sussex first innings fromeither of their two premier batsmen, Bevan and Chris Adams. That pairscored just thirty runs between them though, they were both gone early inproceedings, and the die was cast. The pitch, and the probing turn andflight extracted by Tufnell in foty tight overs, rendered scoring difficultand Sussex’s batsmen in particular exhibited little willingness to dominateat any stage. Robin Martin-Jenkins (44) and Tony Cottey (42) emerged astheir mainstays in a generally disappointing performance.When Middlesex’s turn came, strokeplay was slightly more abundant, and itwas their captain, Justin Langer (48), who was chiefly responsible for theturnaround. Before playing one lofted on drive too many, he gained goodsupport first from Mike Roseberry (28) and then his team’s other main starwith the bat, Mark Ramprakash (27*), as they worked hard to overcome theearly departure of Andrew Strauss (3) and lift the score to 125/3 by theclose. As for Tufnell, the reward for his control today came in the formof the wickets of James Kirtley (21), Bevan (30) and Adams (0). It was aheartening exhibition and one which breathed some life into the home team’sambitions of clawing its way off the bottom of the Division Two table. Inits favour too, of course, is the fact that the Southgate pitch is showingmarked signs of increasingly yielding to spin. Chasing a decent fourthinnings target – no matter its exact dimension – is unlikely to be an easyproposition.