Sussex assistant coach Grant Flower has praised the way the county’s players have fought back with the bat and ball during a thrilling opening County Championship fixture at Hove.
He said: “It has been a brilliant game of cricket and it is still totally in the balance. Hopefully we can get over the line tomorrow. We still have some very capable players to come in.
“It would be good if Sean Hunt can hang around a while longer as the nightwatchman and Oli Carter, who is in with him, is a very good batsman.
“But Durham have a strong bowling attack and you can’t really call it yet.
“As coaches, though, we have been pleased with the way the players have fought back with both bat and ball in this match.
“We started the game pretty inconsistently with the ball and since the first session on day one we have shown resilience in all areas – and tomorrow morning will be another very good test for the team.
“Henry Crocombe is getting better all the time and Fynn Hudson-Prentice took his chance extremely well after being called up as a concussion substitute.
“He was under pressure today to perform but both he and Henry deserved their wickets today and we bowled very well as a unit.”
Durham head coach Ryan Campbell said: “We made it tough for ourselves with a poor batting performance before lunch today. We will have to bowl well tomorrow morning but hopefully we can take those last five wickets.
“It should be an exciting finish. I don’t know how they will be approaching it tomorrow but we will be attacking and trying to get those last five wickets.
“There is also a little bit of spin out there now and Matthew Kuhnemann has already come into the game quite a bit in that session so he could well have a part to play still in this match.”
