287 & 204

Sussex won by an innings and 177 runs

Report

Archer shines as Sussex live up to their heyday

Durham 287 and 97 for 4 trail Sussex 668 (van Zyl 149, Burgess 76, Archer 70) by 284 runs
Scorecard
Sussex consider themselves a Division One county temporarily marooned in Division Two. Yet memories of the glories of the mid-2000s, and their three titles in five years, are receding. The £10 million bequeathed by Spen Cama in 2001 has almost been exhausted, even if the improvements to the ground will ensure a lasting legacy. While finishing fourth in Division Two last season, and losing their opening two Championship games in 2017, Sussex's cricket has borne less resemblance to their triumphs earlier this century than the barren times that came before.
But to be at Hove in the last few days has been to be transported back to the age of all conquering Sussex-by-the-sea, the image undermined only by the sea mist that wafted across the ground on the third afternoon. Until the sepulchral skies compelled Sussex to bowl spin in the last portion of the day, their performance had been utterly ruthless.
First, there were the runs: so greedy that they felt almost sadistic, more in the spirit of Steve Waugh's Australia than the old caricature of jovial Sussex. With an overnight lead of 165, Sussex more than doubled it in spite of losing two early wickets.
Michael Burgess, playing on trial during Ben Brown's injury, was resourceful and energetic in his 76, seldom playing in the batsman's V but placing the ball astutely and scampering between the wickets. Admirably as he played, altogether more memorable was the contribution of another 22-year-old, Jofra Archer.
Archer's reward for 153 runs in Sussex's first two Championship games, second only to the absent Brown, was a double demotion down to No. 10. If he was affronted by the decision - and Archer doesn't give the impression of being bothered by much - his ire was reserved for Durham's attack.
Arriving at the crease at 566 for 8 was not a situation that called for restraint, and Archer did not show it. In a little over an hour, he struck five sixes - all against spin, and all into the leg side - that gave notice of his power. Yet it was Archer's other shots, most notably a dreamy leg-side flick off Paul Coughlin, taking a stride forward to clatter the ball through midwicket, that gave notice of the full scope of his batting talent. Regardless of his position this game, Archer is much more than a big-hitting tailender: if he is not a genuine allrounder, the sort not remotely flattered by batting at No. 7, just yet, he surely soon will be.
When Archer was caught attempting his sixth six, it was the prelude to him bowling again, a sight that Durham can have enjoyed scarcely more than his batting. His early burst did not bring wickets, but it brought almost everything else: venomous bouncers, which whizzed through at head height, persistent away swing, and nous. Archer set up Cameron Steel, Durham's No. 3, with a series of deliveries that moved away; only an inside edge saved Steel when Archer brought the ball back in.
It mattered not. Vernon Philander, wicketless in his opening game for Sussex and then injured, bowled with the zest expected of a man ranked the world's 11th best Test bowler, which has not always been true during his stints in county cricket. He needed only a single delivery to win his tussle with compatriot Stephen Cook, who was squared up by a ball that curved awa. Four overs later, Keaton Jennings' off stump was dislodged by a delivery that went through his gate.
When Philander was replaced, it brought Durham no relief. Now it was Chris Jordan's chance to move the ball both ways down the slope, doing so with vim. Outswing accounted for Steel, brilliantly snaffled by Chris Nash at second slip, who had shelled two far simpler chances off Jordan in the first innings; Graham Clark was then lbw, cut open by a ball that angled in.
If Sussex like to imagine their stop in Division Two is only fleeting, the same is emphatically true of Durham, only in Division Two because of administrative failings rather than performance on the pitch.
But, on this evidence, even promotion in 2018 may prove onerous. At Hove, Durham have had the look of a patched-up side, betraying the impact of being ravaged by departures, England commitments and ill-fortune, compounded by a mid-match injury to Graham Onions.
The qualities of their opening batsmen and bowlers are without question, notwithstanding Cook's underwhelming start; so is the spirit, embodied in an excellent fielding performance impervious to Durham's bleak position in the game. Whether, besides Paul Collingwood, three days short of his 41st birthday, there is enough high-calibre support is altogether more doubtful.
Redoubtable as ever, Collingwood and Ryan Pringle withstood over 200 balls together unbroken, though the spin they faced was altogether less threatening than Sussex's pace attack, with which they will be reacquainted in the morning. On hopes of Collingwood reprising the adhesiveness of England days past lie Durham's slim chances of leaving England's southernmost ground without a second Championship defeat of 2017.

Tim Wigmore is a freelance journalist and author of Second XI: Cricket in its Outposts

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