No wheels on my wagon…

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Championship: Sussex v Yorkshire – Hove, 5th – 7th September

“No wheels on my wagon,
So I’m not rolling along
The Cherokees captured me
They look mad, things look bad
But I’m singing a happy song”

Hard to sum up how resounding a defeat this was. Our 2007 campaign’s Waterloo? Or does that make it sound too much like a hard fought contest? Perhaps I should stick with cricketing comparisons and say that for the last three days Yorkshire have been made to look like the Bangladesh to Sussex’s Australia.

Not that we weren’t up against it even before the start, as we went into the game with a bowling attack missing both Dizzy and captain Gough. Add to that, losing the toss and having to bat second on a pitch prepared by a groundsman who clearly has both Mushy and Saqlain in his Daily Telegraph fantasy cricket team.

Inspection of the pitch confirmed our suspicion that it might take spin

When Sussex batted our worst fears were realised, as whilst at the start they had to work hard for runs we didn’t have anyone to help Hoggy apply sustained pressure. But credit’s got to be given to their batters as well, only one of who failed. With Yardy and Hodd scoring the centuries that Sussex’s mammoth total of 597 was built around. Hodd in particular constructed a great innings. What is it with Sussex and wicketkeepers at the moment? Prior, Ambrose, Hodd and they’ve even produced the England U19 keeper Ben Brown.

By the end of the innings we had little more than the fig leaf of two bowling bonus points to cover our embarrassment, as Naved and Saqlain where playing festival shots to finish us off. We had some sorry looking bowling stats by the end as well, with the 0-141 return by new recruit Imran Tahir catching the eye for all the wrong reasons.

Now I can understand why we wanted an experienced spinner for this game and I’ve nothing against the lad. But some of the reasoning behind Tahir’s signing didn’t add up for me. It’s ok saying he’d done well in the leagues during the summer, but so had Lawson and Wainwright. Plus David has bowled beautifully for the first team when given the chance this year. So it’s a bit of a kick to middle stump, not playing him in this match.

Imran Tahir: International Man of Mystery

What followed in our innings was all too predictable, as Mushy, whilst not unplayable, used his knowledge of the pitch to undermine us by breaking up every partnership that got going. Our batting just didn’t cope with bowlers who were now obtaining considerable amounts of turn. Although it was noticeable that the only fifties scored in our sub-par 247 came from two of the younger lads, Rashid and Gale. We had more experienced heads in the team than them and they should have been able to show the same kind of application.

But what was even more disheartening, especially for the sizeable support we’d brought with us, was the abject failure to reach three figures in the second innings. Ok, conditions weren’t the best, but three wickets going down to Jason Lewry and seven in total to seamers just isn’t good enough, especially when Mushy only had to bowl one over second time round.

A survivor of the cut-throat world of politics meets George Bush

So a devastating defeat that final ends our championship hopes. A collective failure under pressure that condemned us to the second largest innings defeat in our long history. But whilst the inquests will go on for us, you have to give full marks to a Sussex side who showed why they’ve been the team to beat over the last few seasons.

Si’thee later,

Len

My Man of the Match: Sussex (teamwork won the game)

Result – Sussex (22 points) beat Yorkshire (3 points) by an Innings and 261 runs

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~ by lentheyorkshirekitman on 8 September, 2007.