Leicestershire 338 and 86-1
Sussex 694-9 declared
Match drawn
Frequent heavy showers killed off any prospect of a positive result from Sussex’s visit to Leicestershire in the Vitality County Championship.
The rain meant that no play was possible at all on the final scheduled day of their Division Two clash.
Sussex skipper John Simpson’s maiden double century had put Sussex in a strong position on day three which ended with Leicestershire 270 in arrears at 86-1 in their second innings.
Earlier, the visitors had declared at 694-9 just after tea, giving them a lead of 356.
The start of play on day four was delayed at first by a saturated outfield – and then came more rain.
This was compounded by the safety issues raised by trying to remove the covering sheets in winds gusting to gale force.
In all, it gave umpires James Middlebrook and Paul Pollard little option but to abandon the match as a draw shortly before 1pm.
It means that both sides have two draws from two matches so far, with Sussex the more frustrated.
Their winning position came to nothing against Northamptonshire at Hove last week and now the weather again had the last word.
Sussex take 14 points from this match, giving them 29 from two and keeping them top of Division Two, with Leicestershire taking 12 to swell their early season total to 25.
Sussex head coach Paul Farbrace said: “It’s disappointing – but looking at it another way, we’ve had three days of good cricket.
“The ground staff did brilliantly to get us on considering the outfield is very soft and they’ve had a lot of rain here like everywhere else.
“It was a very good pitch and it was a shame for both sides that it couldn’t be finished in the way both sides would have wanted – but I guess that’s cricket in April.
“We can take a lot of positives from the game. We played good cricket last week and couldn’t quite get over the line.
“And here we’ve bowled the opposition out for 330 and then batted ourselves into a position where there was only one side going to win the game.
“In both the first two games we’ve been in with a good chance of winning going into the last day which is what we’ve talked about doing.
“Individually, we’ve had Haines continuing his good start to the season. Simpson getting a double hundred and Lamb a hundred was outstanding for the pair of them after wanting to show their new team-mates what they are capable of. And Hudson-Prentice was outstanding again as he was against Northants last week.
“My verdict on the Kookaburra – we’ve had two good games of cricket played on good pitches. The only time we’ve changed the ball was when it got hit out of the ground and lost.
“Yes, the bat has been slightly on top against the ball. But the spinners have bowled a lot of overs – and while the seamers have got to be skilful to get it off the straight, that’s the whole idea of using it so I’ve got no complaints.
“That said, I’m still not absolutely sure that we need it and I don’t like the fact that every time we lose an Ashes series we have to change English cricket.
“We should concentrate on what we do well and certainly a lot of bowlers up and down the country will be looking forward to playing with the Dukes again next week.”
Leicestershire head coach Alfonso Thomas spoke about Leicestershire’s leading wicket-taker in recent seasons, Chris Wright, who is currently absent for personal reasons.
The veteran seamer was due to join Sussex at the end of last season only to call off the move for family reasons.
Thomas denied that any breakdown in his relationship with Wright had anything to do with his being missing from the team.
He said: “We are constantly talking to Wrighty. He is in a good place and we will hopefully have news on his possible return sooner rather than later.
“It is tough what he has been going through and all we can do as a club is support him.
“I know there have been a few rumours floating around that I might have fallen out with Wrighty but I can categorically say that is not the case.
“The two of us are in constant contact. We know where he’s at. I know where I’m at. I was a key part in trying to get him to stay last year.
“There is nothing more to this story other than the fact that Wrighty is just going through a personal struggle at the moment.”
