Seamers struggle for Sussex (From The Argus)

Seamers struggle for Sussex

7:20am Thursday 9th July 2009 in

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The only Sussex bowler to improve his reputation at Edgbaston yesterday was Robin Martin-Jenkins as Sussex’s attack struggled to make the most of helpful conditions against Warwickshire.

Left out of the side after making 25 unbroken appearances in the Championship side stretching back to August 2007, Martin-Jenkins could only watch in frustration as the county endured more disappointment at a venue where they last won in 1982.

That long wait for a win is likely to be extended thanks mainly to Jonathan Trott, who made 166 in just under five-and-a-half hours to lead a robust fight back after Warwickshire lost two wickets in the first 40 minutes to plunge to 16-3.

At that stage Mike Yardy’s decision to bowl first was vindicated. But Sussex’s change seamers lacked the consistency of Yasir Arafat and Corey Collymore with Dwayne Smith, who is keeping Martin-Jenkins out of the side, particularly expensive.

Too often Sussex bowled too short in conditions which demanded that the ball had to be pitched up to give it a chance of swinging under heavy cloud cover.

Even Arafat was guilty of it when he took the second new ball in the evening session and found Ant Botha and Trott happy to take on the challenge.

You couldn’t help but think that Martin-Jenkins, who habitually bowls a fuller length, would have used his experience and made more of conditions. It will be a big surprise if he is not back in the side at Arundel next week.

With only two days left Sussex should at least avoid a sixth defeat in their last seven visits to Birmingham.

Warwickshire have won just once on their own patch in 18 Championship games since beating Sussex here in April 2007 and by the close this wicket had become like so many at Edgbaston in the intervening two years: flat and easy paced. Sussex had missed a trick though.

It all started so well. Arafat and Collymore created pressure by bowling five successive maidens before Collymore got just enough away swing to tempt Ian Westwood into a fatal push.

Ian Bell, who had hot-footed it from Cardiff after being released by England, probably wished he had stayed to watch the Test. Having scored just two singles from 30 balls his leg-side waft gave Collymore his second wicket but any notion that Sussex were on top proved illusory.

Trott hardly made a mistake as he steered Warwickshire into calmer waters in half-century stands with Jim Troughton, Tim Ambrose, Rikki Clarke and Botha, with whom he added 96 for the seventh wicket.

Trott loves batting against Sussex. This was the 28-year-old’s fourth hundred against the county, the first of which came on his Warwickshire debut in 2003. He has scored 469 runs, more than anyone else, in Twenty20 cricket this season but this was a great example of how to survive and then prosper in tricky conditions in the longer format.

His 18th first-class hundred came up with a textbook on-drive for his 14th four but the shot of the day was a perfectly-played hook off Smith which whizzed to the rope. He had faced 247 balls and hit 20 boundaries when he under-edge a tired pull at Wright.

Off-spinner Ollie Rayner found only a modicum of turn but could consider himself unlucky not to add to the wicket of Troughton, bizarrely stumped by Andrew Hodd when a leg side flick bounced off the keeper’s pads and back onto the stumps as the batsman overbalanced.

Rayner used his long levers to get down well at second slip to remove Westwood and then caught Ambrose on the rebound after Yardy had parried the edge at first slip.

But the best bit of work came from Ed Joyce at gully who parried a fiercely-struck square drive by Clarke before catching it at the second attempt.