Chris Adams is backing Sussex's underperforming batsman to come good.

The Championship campaign will have reached it's halfway mark after the match against Gloucestershire at Arundel which starts tomorrow (11am).

So far only Adams (4) and Ian Ward (3) have scored centuries in four-day cricket this season.

Of the other top-order batsmen, Richard Montgomerie's top score to date is 85, Murray Goodwin's is 83, Tim Ambrose's is 56 and Matt Prior's is 70.

In contrast, Adams has made 653 runs at an average of 93.28 and Ward 644 at 71.55. Their combined aggregate comfortably exceeds the Championship runs made by the rest of the team put together.

Adams isn't worried that two players seem to be carrying the batting burden, but he accepts that contributions all the way down the order is the key to success as Sussex proved last season when eight players made hundreds in their title-winning campaign.

"It's an interesting stat, but it doesn't worry me," said Adams.

"I'm confident that the other guys will come good in the second half of the season.

"A feature of our success last year was that someone always got a hundred. As long as we get wins it can be me or Wardy this season although obviously it would help their own confidence if the other guys came good.

"I'm sure they will. They are all in good form at the moment, it's only a matter of time."

Adams refused to set any personal goals at the start of the season, but admits he would like to beat his 1996 record of six Championship centuries.

"I had no targets other than to take each game as it comes," he added. "But I feel at the moment that if I can get in I seem to have found a way to score runs without being reckless or over-aggressive."

Sussex need a win if they are to go into the second half of the season with realistic hopes of retaining their title. One-day cricket hogs the schedule for the best part of a month after this week, but Adams is aware of the threat posed by a Gloucestershire side who have acquited themselves well in their first season in Division One.

"They don't have any superstars, but they are a tough unit used to big occasions because of their success in one-day cricket," said Adams.

"We haven't come across a few of their players because they have been in Division Two, but it works the opposite way as well.

"They won't have played against the likes of Mohammad Akram and Mushtaq Ahmed which could work massively in our favour."

Sussex have won twice in their last three matches at the Castle Ground and confidence is high following the win over Lancashire ten days ago, their first of the season in the Championship.

"We played so well there," said Adams. "We never gave them an inch right from the start and that's what we've got to do again, especially at Arundel. It's the sort of ground where if you get behind the eight-ball even in one session you could be struggling."

Sussex are expected to name an unchanged team although there is some doubt over the availability of Akram whose wife is due to give birth at any time.

The Pakistani paceman missed training yesterday, but is due to link-up with the squad for practice at Arundel today. Ian Ward should have recovered from the hand injury which ruled him out of Saturday's one-dayer against the West Indies.

"I'd like to play the same attack again. It was no coincidence that when we played it at Old Trafford we took 20 wickets for the first time this season.

"The only problem is that it means we leave out a quality performer like Mark Davis. But if the summer stays dry then he will come into his own in the second half of the season, as he did last year."