Sussex welcome back T20 stars (From The Argus)

Sussex welcome back T20 stars

3:00pm Saturday 22nd May 2010 in Sport By Bruce Talbot

Sussex World Cup heroes return to county duty tomorrow and cricket manager Mark Robinson hopes Mike Yardy and Luke Wright get the reception they deserve.

The pair will play in Sussex’s last CB40 game for two months against ECB Unicorns tomorrow as the Sharks look to make it four wins out of five in Group A.

It is an away match for Sussex but takes place at Arundel (1.45pm) and the promise of good weather and the chance to welcome back Yardy and Wright should see a decent turnout.

Robinson said: “They have done us and themselves proud. It’s good to get them back and although it is an away game I hope there is a good contingent of Sussex supporters there to welcome them. It is the least they deserve.

“I have spoken to them both and they are looking forward to playing for us again. We want them to hit the ground running.

“They will be eager to play but you want them to be ready to play and that is more of a mental thing. We need them to make a contribution in the way that our best players should.”

With Ed Joyce back in the squad and Yasir Arafat primed to replace Rana Naved Sussex will have virtually a full-strength squad for the first time in their bid to make it a hat-trick of 40 overs titles.

The Unicorns gave Sussex a few scares at Hove earlier this month and the team made up of the best amateur and club players in the country beat Glamorgan last week. Robinson will warn against complaceny as Sharks try to keep in touch with Somerset, the only side to have beaten them so far, at the top of the table.

He said: “Every team has a couple of players who can hurt you if they come off. It will be important that we close situations down. In the home game we were 30 runs light, they got off to a flier and we put ourselves under pressure. If someone does bowl a golden spell or a good ten overs with the bat we have to ensure we have enough leeway in the game for it not to hurt us.

“The only game we have lost despite not being able to even field our strongest side so far we should have won. We made things difficult for ourselves at Taunton last week but you sometimes have to give credit to the opposition too and Somerset chased down the target well.

“It is a test for everyone because this is the last opportunity to get our one-day skills right before Twenty20.”

Michael Thornely hopes his maiden one-day half-century at Taunton will be enough to keep him in the side despite the return of Yardy and Joyce, although he was disappointed not to convert his 67 into something more substantial last Saturday.

He said: “I set myself high standards and I will learn from what happened and cash in the next time I find myself in that situation. Hopefully that will be sooner rather than later. I want to cement my place by going on and scoring big runs.

“Three wins and one defeat in this competition is not a bad start. Compared to the last few years we have made a good start and I’m sure we can bounce back against Unicorns.”

Sussex (from): Prior, Nash, Thornely, Joyce, Goodwin, Yardy, Hodd, Arafat, Martin-Jenkins, Keegan, Kirtley, Panesar, Rayner.

Unicorns (from): Murtagh, Thompson, Durston, Parsons, Hancock, Knappett, Querl, Brown, Miles, Mees, Park, Akram, Chisthi.