How does 30/3 turn into a formidable score? For England, the question lingers, as a malfunctioning top order again failed to appear as the hosts crumbled to 103 all out in pursuit of 509 today at Lord’s. In Horsham, however, a similarly mediocre start turned into a golden position for Nottinghamshire thanks to an unbeaten 163 from James Taylor.
Taylor, who has long flirted with the fringes of the national side but remains a veteran of only two tests, could not have found a more timely century. Though not without its chances, which included a pair of LBW appeals that took him off his feet either side of reaching his first century of the summer, Sussex failed to control Taylor, who reached three figures from 190 balls and continued to push on, gaining in flair and carefully accelerating. The shot that brought up his 150 was a microcosm of the day’s luck, as a prod to mid-off for a single ended up rolling to the boundary for 5 and a chorus of applause from the Nottinghamshire squad, under the watchful eyes of England selector Mick Newell and exiled coach Peter Moores.
He found support in a pair of century stands with wicketkeepers, with Riki Wessels’ departure for a punchy 94 to be Ollie Robinson’s third victim soon bringing Chris Read to the crease. By this stage, Taylor found himself settled on 50, and this allowed Read to make a slow yet untroubled start. He eventually reached his 50 from 117 balls, adding just one more run before stumps. Though Ed Joyce let a tough opportunity off Read’s edge fall on 35, Sussex can take solace in their drastic improvement in fielding from a comedy of errors in Friday’s T20 loss to Hampshire.
The third option with the gloves, Taylor’s Zimbabwean namesake Brendan, was not so fortunate. As the visitors appeared lukewarm to the initial character of the pitch, he fell for 7 from 37 balls to provide an early reward to Matt Hobden, who went on to concede over 100 in his 17 overs. Before him, Alex Hales had become the first to fall off the bowling of Ollie Robinson, providing an edge to Chris Nash at second slip on 3.
Like Hales, Steven Mullaney played a strong hand on Nottinghamshire’s last trip to West Sussex, and for a few balls it looked as if his destructive mindset was the same. Ultimately his innings proved more concise, ending on 15 in the plentiful mitts of Luke Wells for Robinson’s second, but not before he all-out decapitated a rare empty seat with a swipe over the midwicket boundary. Hope later emerged out of the escalating scorecard for Sussex as Samit Patel succumbed to Robinson for 9 to chase Wessels back under the pagoda, followed by a tightening of the screw from Robinson and Magoffin, though Read, once under way, helped Taylor into a comfortable position at the close.
The home side, who were spun to an incredible victory against Warwickshire here last summer by Kentish loanee James Tredwell, found their ongoing spin conundrum remaining one of the many concerns. Wells, an opening batsman by trade whose dabbling in spin has recently begun to resemble treading water, was the first trusted with the ball – ending up with 21 overs under his belt, third only to Robinson and the typically miserly Magoffin – before trialist Peter Burgoyne, formerly of Derbyshire, was unleashed to bowl at 5.7 per over. Both finished wicketless at stumps.
Ashar Zaidi and Will Beer, the only specialist spinners in the contracted squad, observed from the boundary, doubtless pondering how else they can win the red-ball affections of Mark Robinson. Just two games ago Zaidi was one of four centurions at Edgbaston in a motorway duel, while Beer has been granted just 6 appearances in the Championship side since his debut in 2008, despite his white ball prowess. In a town he calls his home, at a ground where his mother acts as a purveyor of baked goodness, murmurings were rife that Sussex could do far worse than give him a chance.
Xavier Voigt-Hill 