EDGBASTON (second day of four): Sussex, with nine first-innings wickets in hand, are 221 runs behind Warwickshire
IT WAS not difficult to identify the side giving chase to the league leaders yesterday. Sussex reduced Warwickshire to 346, their lowest completed first-innings total since April, and then set about the reply with a clear sense of urgency as Richard Montgomerie completed a half-century from 45 balls and posted 106 for the first wicket with Ian Ward.
Except for a period of 33 overs when Jonathan Trott and Tony Frost were rebuilding the Warwickshire innings, the defending champions enjoyed by far the better of the second day. In particular, their bowling scored very highly by comparison with the wastefulness that followed.
Cries of “rubbish” from supporters made for background noise to the regular smack of new ball against advertising board as Montgomerie, whose 50 included 11 fours, tucked into Dewald Pretorius and Dougie Brown when they overpitched.
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Montgomerie will resume on 73 but will be careful to avoid the fate that befell Ian Bell, who acquired only three more singles in the morning to move to 87 before opting to leave a ball from James Kirtley which nipped back to shave off stump. Kirtley soon added the wicket of Jim Troughton as reward for his efforts of the day before.
When Brown mis-pulled Robin Martin-Jenkins the innings stood at a pivotal stage but Trott, whose average in the mid-50s this season has been somewhat overlooked alongside the brilliance of Bell, took responsibility for ensuring that complete collapse did not follow. He hit 90 from 186 balls before an invigorated Martin-Jenkins claimed the last three wickets.
WARWICKSHIRE: First Innings
*N V Knight c Ward b Akram 65
M A Wagh c Ward b Akram 6
I R Bell b Kirtley 87
I J L Trott b Martin-Jenkins 90
M J Powell c Prior b Akram 5
J O Troughton c Martin-Jenkins b Kirtley 2
D R Brown c Adams b Martin-Jenkins 12
T Frost lbw b Mushtaq 48
H H Streak c Goodwin b Martin-Jenkins 2
N Tahir not out 3
D Pretorius lbw b Martin-Jenkins 14
Extras (b 2, lb 6, nb 4) 12
Total (120 overs) 346
FALL OF WICKETS: 1-11, 2-141, 3-184, 4-195, 5-198, 6-226, 7-325, 8-327, 9-330.
BOWLING: Akram 27-5-94-3; Kirtley 32-7-75-2; Mushtaq Ahmed 27-3-74-1; Martin-Jenkins 21-5-62-4; Davis 13-0-33-0.
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SUSSEX: First Innings
I J Ward lbw b Tahir 34
R R Montgomerie not out 73
P A Cottey not out9 Extras (lb 9) 9
Total (1 wkt, 39 overs) 125
M W Goodwin, *C J Adams, M J Prior, R S C Martin-Jenkins, M J G Davis, Mushtaq Ahmed, R J Kirtley and M Akram to bat.
FALL OF WICKET: 1-106.
BOWLING: Streak 12-4-25-0; Pretorius 5-0-33-0; Brown 11-4-36-0; Tahir 7-1-20-1; Bell 3-1-2-0; Troughton 1-1-0-0.
Bonus points: Warwickshire 3 Sussex 3
Umpires: G I Burgess and D J Constant.