CANTERBURY (third day of four): Sussex (19pts) beat Kent (4) by two wickets
THEY say winning is a habit, but it is still a devilishly difficult one to get into — as Chris Adams, the Sussex captain, readily admitted yesterday after his team had at last completed as tension-filled a victory as it is possible to endure.
Mushtaq Ahmed, the Pakistan leg spinner who is doing his brilliant best to spearhead a second Sussex championship triumph in four years, even greeted the leg-side single from his ninth-wicket partner, James Kirtley, that finally took them to a modest target of 161, by going down on his knees in thankful prayer.
By then the Sussex dressing-room was united in relief as much as celebration, because to say that they made heavy weather of going 19 points clear of Lancashire at the top of the championship is as understated as calling Mushtaq a decent little bowler.
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Those points, nevertheless, are now on the board and — with a poorer forecast for next week, when Lancashire play Durham at Old Trafford — it is Sussex who could well be holding the whip hand when the final round of matches begins on September 20. Both Lancashire and Sussex must play away from home then, against Hampshire and Nottinghamshire respectively.
Asked if the experience of winning the title in 2003 should not actually be making things easier for Sussex second time around, Adams said: “A lot of people will look at some of the cricket we have played in this match and wonder what is going on, but unless you have been out there you will never appreciate just what tension can do to people.
“Kent are always a difficult team to beat, and James Tredwell bowled extremely well. Our application and shot selection may not have been the best at times, but I’m a big believer in being as positive as possible in tense situations and that is what I will be expecting from us in the last match at Trent Bridge.
“Yes, we have won the championship before, but I think in 2003 there were no expectations of us because Sussex had never won it in their entire history. Now we know what we expect of ourselves and we have proved that we deserve to be up there among the top three teams in the country.”
Adams’s own naturally forthright method saw him hit his first two balls, from Tredwell, for four but he, Matthew Prior and Robin Martin-Jenkins all lifted drives at inopportune moments. Carl Hopkinson had earlier been bowled middle stump, behind his pads, as he swept at the first ball bowled by Tredwell, who finished with career-best figures for innings and match.
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Sussex, however, did enough and will now welcome back Rana Naved-ul-Hasan for the match at Trent Bridge, in place of their excellent replacement overseas player, Yasir Arafat.