Each county has just two championship matches left. Sussex, who had managed only 35 overs by tea yesterday, have to travel to Canterbury to play Kent with just a day’s respite after this fixture. That, in itself, is far from satisfactory. What happened to the idea of more rest days and proper practice? Then, in their last fixture, Sussex will have to excel against Nottinghamshire, the county champions, at Trent Bridge. They will truly deserve the pennant after all that.
So an excellent match against Hampshire, not least on account of Shane Warne’s stellar performance, will require some contrivance today. Sussex gained a first innings lead of 101 through adding 32 runs to their overnight total of 416-8. And who should take those last two wickets, defying jet lag and the effects of a training camp in Australia? Why, Warne of course.
Only he could have returned sweating from the outback — literally so, for deodorant was deemed a luxury in John Buchanan’s bizarre boot camp — and, having on Wednesday journeyed to Hove, scored a half-century on Thursday and then bowled 42.3 overs.
In having Yasir Arafat stumped by Nic Pothas and then bowling Jason Lewry, Warne took his tally of championship wickets for the season to 50. The three Hampshire fixtures he has missed out of a possible 13 have all been against strong opposition: Lancashire, Sussex at the Rose Bowl, and Warwickshire a fortnight ago, a match Hampshire narrowly lost. For them to win the championship they have to triumph in their remaining three fixtures, including this one.
Sussex, an excessively noisy lot in the field, had made scant further progress when a second interruption for rain began at 2.28pm. The Hampshire wicket to fall was that of James Adams, who edged a ball from Lewry to Matt Prior without any discernable foot movement. That was 16-1 and, other than missing Michael Carberry at second slip off Arafat when he had reached 16 — a straightforward chance to Chris Nash — and failing to counter some pleasing, familiar clips off his legs by John Crawley, Sussex could do no more before tea.
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Win today and Sussex will head the table by 10 points. The weather forecast is set fair. After their best start to a season since the 1930s — five straight victories after drawing their opening championship match — they should have been out of sight by now. Kent, Middlesex, and Warwickshire could all have been beaten.
The reason for Sussex having to play their remaining two championship matches away from Hove is that the Arthur Gilligan Stand at the sea end was earmarked for demolition as part of the expensive ground redevelopment. This project has now been put back a year. So the best-laid plans are hardly working in their favour.
Will Sussex be worthy champions? If they win today, the impetus from what will be a considerable victory should sweep them ever onwards. They are not exactly a “great” team, as Adams claimed after their C&G Trophy triumph against Lancashire last weekend, but clearly they are a very good one, with a telling blend of youth and experience, and high-class overseas players.
Mushtaq is a wondrous match winner, just as he was when Sussex won the championship in 2003. He now has 76 wickets this season, and, but for nursing a neck injury on the last day of the match against Lancashire here, would surely have added to that tally. He is under contract until the end of next summer and there can be little doubt that he will be asked back by the Sussex committee.
Mushtaq had yet to come on in Hampshire’s second innings when the rain arrived. An early tea was taken, but there was scant sign of a break in the grey, gusting clouds drifting over Hove from an angry sea. Even now, one sensed, the gambler that is Warne would be formulating ideas to put to Adams in the pavilion.