After victory over Durham on a finely balanced final day at Hove, Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said that he hoped his side’s performance would give them confidence.
Farbrace said: “It was a bit nervy today but great to get over the line. The way our four seamers bowled on the third day, when they backed each other up, was outstanding and set the game up for us.
“If there was a man of the match I’d give it to Oli Carter. The way he kept wicket in both innings and the way be batted in the first innings, when he were 91 for 4 and he put together a partnership with (Cheteshwar) Pujara, and then again today was outstanding.
“In both innings he played really calmly and particularly this morning showed a lot of composure. He deserved to be the bloke who got us over the line.
“It’s a great lesson for our team because it has shown they can beat good opponents.
“Bowling-wise, Durham’s attack is first division quality. They’ve got a lot of good batters and are very experienced and will win a lot of games. They will win a lot of matches this year.
“So hopefully the confidence this result gives our players, to have played in a really tough game on a fantastic cricket pitch, gives us something to really build on going forward.”
Durham fast bowler Brydon Carse said: “We’re obviously disappointed to be on the losing side but over the last four days the way we have gone about our business and the cricket we are trying to play has been really positive.
“We had an honest chat after the game today and (acting skipper) Alex Lees spoke really well to the group.
“We’ve been on the wrong end of it in this game but going forward I don’t think we’ve got anything to worry about.
“There are a few areas where we can do better but I think all of our players gave everything.
“We came into today fully believing that we were going to win but maybe if we’d got 20 or 30 more runs in our second innings we could have won. But obviously that’s in hindsight.”
