Worcestershire’s director of cricket, Steve Rhodes, praised both sides after his county’s highly entertaining 11-run victory against Sussex here on Wednesday.
Sussex, chasing 272 for an improbable victory with a very inexperienced batting lineup, looked out of it when they were 113 for six. But then Chris Jordan and David Wiese added 114 in 23 overs to set up the possibility of a win before Miguel Cummins finished off the match with a burst of wickets to end with figures of 12 for 166.
Rhodes said: “The two sides went at it hard and produced a really good game of cricket. This was a second division game, with not much riding on it, but we saw a lot of good cricket, featuring international players on good form. Miguel was everything we were promised he would be. We had two good attacks in this match.”
Rhodes was especially proud that the other 10 players had all come through Worcestershire’s academy system. He said: “I’m not having a go at Sussex, because they played really well. But while they had South Africans and Australians and West Indians in their side our team was full of Englishmen. We try to do things the right way for English cricket and we’ll get there in the end.”
With Worcestershire committed to John Hastings as their overseas player next season there seems no way back for Cummins next year. Rhodes did say that they would be looking for another overseas player in the Twenty20 competition but also said: “The West Indies will be playing a lot of international cricket next year.”
Sussex did not look competitive at the start of the third day. Craig Cachopa, facing the second ball of the morning, was bowled through the gate by Joe Leach. Ben Brown was lbw to one that kept low and jagged back at him from Cummins. And Sussex were 42 for four when Fynn Hudson-Prentice lost his off-stump to Leach for 20.
Phil Salt, driving too soon, was caught at mid-off for 17 and, when Ollie Robinson was run out for 42 on the stroke of lunch, having his middle stump thrown out by Brett D’Oliveira, Sussex were imploding at 113 for six.
It was then that Jordan and Wiese turned the situation round, before the former was caught behind for his second fifty in the game with the score on 227.
Jofra Archer was caught at second slip by Daryl Mitchell for 16 and then D’Oliveria produced a second fine piece of fielding, this time at square-leg, to catch Danny Briggs.
The last man, Steve Magoffin, came in with 12 runs needed. He had taken 10 wickets in the match but he did less well with the bat. He had his middle-stump ripped out by Cummins first ball, leaving Wiese a frustrated figure at the non-striker’s end, unbeaten on 70.
