Lead High Performance Coach James Franklin has named an unchanged squad of 14 for Durham’s LV=Insurance County Championship match against Sussex at Hove. [28- April – 1 May]
Durham head on the road for the second time during this summers campaign, following back to back home games against Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire.
The same 14 have been named from last weeks squad against Nottinghamshire and Durham will now be looking for their first win of the campaign when they go up against a youthful homegrown Sussex line up who last season featured 3 school students and 10 university students.
Despite a young looking squad, Sussex do have two very experienced International professionals in Cheteshwar Pujara and Mohammad Rizwan who can influence a game between themselves.
Sussex currently sit in bottom spot in the Division 2 table with 16 points having lost two and drawn one of their opening 3 games, while Durham are 6th with 32 points.
Durham last faced Sussex in the 2019 season when Ben Raine bowled Durham to their second County Championship win of the season with a career-best haul of 6 for 27 as Sussex were beaten by 196 runs at Hove. Durham’s victory was set up during a devastating spell of four wickets in 16 balls by Raine.
Squad v Sussex (28 April-1 May)
David Bedingham, Scott Borthwick (c), George Drissell, Sean Dickson, Ned Eckersley +, Oliver Gibson, Michael Jones, Alex Lees, Liam Trevaskis, Keegan Petersen, Matthew Potts, Ben Raine, Chris Rushworth, Matt Salisbury
Words from James Franklin
We spoke after the game against Nottinghamshire, where there was obviously disappointment in the group. I guess at the manner particularly of the defeat, but when you give a good team an opportunity they often take it and we gave it to them early on.
It all really went wrong just before lunch when we lost Sean Dickson on what we thought was a really good batting pitch and then we capitulated to a score that was under par and then they took advantage of the way the pitch was playing.
We reflected on it on Saturday after the game, we aren’t a bad team over night and we know that. It’s a new week and we have to take learnings from it ahead of the Sussex game.
We’d made a solid start in the first two games and last year our red ball cricket was really good. We’re anticipating this will be just a blip, a bad one I know, probably the worst I’ve had since I’ve been here. We have the expectation on ourselves as a Championship team now and our expectation is we go down to Sussex and put ourselves in a good position there.
Alex Lees is trying to prove his fitness. It’s been a frustrating start to the season for Alex especially after the amazing hundred he scored down in Cardiff. He’s eager to get going and watching all the runs people are scoring all around the country, but he’s a strong character and he’s got to respect and be patient with the process of getting fit.
Michael Jones and Dickson have done a great job of creating selection pressures. Sean Dickson probably hasn’t played as much Championship cricket as he’d have wanted in the last couple of seasons but he’s really shown what he’s capable of doing at the start of this season.
Jones as well getting his maiden century, it’s always a great moment for any cricketer, hopefully now he can kick on.
The Opposition
Coach: Ian Salisbury
Captain: Tom Haines
Last year’s performance: 6th (Division 3)
2021 leading run scorer: Tom Haines (1176, 47.04)
2021 leading wicket taker: Jack Carson (37, 36.10)
Overseas players: Cheteshwar Pujara (India) Mohammed Rizwan (Pakistan)
Key player: Tom Haines – Sussex captain and their leading run scorer in 2021, Tom Haines could have received an England Lions call up for their tour of Australia over the winter. He became the first batsmen to score 1,000 LV= Insurance County Championship runs in 2021 and has started the summer of in the same manner as he already has 393 runs from three games.
Under the radar: Tom Clark is another successful product of the Sussex production line and with an impressive start to his First-class career, he is one of the players who will be one watch to watch this summer. The 21-year-old scored his maiden First-Class century against Nottinghamshire to kick off the 2022 season, and will be looking for more of the same throughout the summer.
Young potential: 21 year-old Ali Orr has so far proven he will be one to watch for the future having impressed for Sussex so far. In seven Championship matches in 2021 Ali scored over 500 runs at an average of nearly 40, including four fifties and a maiden first-class century against Kent in just his third appearance.
Match Centre
The Club’s match centre will be in operation for the fixture with live scorecards, statistics & video highlights as they happen. You can watch the game live via Durham’s match centre and Sussex YouTube channel.