Yorkshire are the visitors for Delray Rawlins and his Sussex teammate's first home game of the LV= Insurance County Championship season which gets underway behind closed doors at The 1st Central County Ground on Thursday. It will be the teams' first encounter in any format since 2015.
One change has been made to the Sussex squad that traveled to Cardiff last week, with Mitch Claydon replacing Stuart Meaker in the 12-man group.
After taking maximum points from their eight-wicket win against Glamorgan, Sussex are the early leaders in Group 3 of the Championship, with 38 points from two matches. Lancashire and this week's visitors Yorkshire are both close behind, with a draw and a win each and 37 and 34 points respectively.
Stiaan van Zyl became Sussex’s second centurion of the campaign in Wales, scoring 113 in an innings full of aesthetically pleasing strokeplay. There were also fifties for Aaron Thomason, Tom Haines, George Garton, Ollie Robinson, and Tom Clark. After two rounds, Haines is fourth on the Championship run-scorers list, with 274 from his four innings so far. Thomason tops the Sussex batting averages currently with 194 runs from four innings, with two not outs.
Robinson’s spectacular nine-wicket-haul in Glamorgan’s second inning saw him finish with 13 in the match. That sent him to the top of the Championship wicket-takers list with 15 scalps so far and has intensified talk of a Test debut for the 27-year-old. He’ll have a chance to impress the England captain in person this week (see ‘Opposition’). There were more encouraging signs from first-year professionals, Henry Crocombe and Jack Carson, who each took three important wickets at Sophia Gardens.
“The shift the spinners Jack Carson and Rawlins put in on the third evening to keep it tight was massive. Because of that, Sussex was able to keep Ollie back and fresh for the spell where he got it reversing and the last few wickets fell.
Sussex Squad: Ben Brown (captain, wicketkeeper), Ollie Robinson (vice-capt.), Jack Carson, Tom Clark, Mitch Claydon Henry Crocombe, George Garton, Tom Haines, Sean Hunt, Delray Rawlins, Aaron Thomason, Stiaan van Zyl
Yorkshire squad: Steve Patterson (captain), Gary Balance, Dom Bess, Harry Brook, Tom Kohler-Cadmore, Adam Lyth, Duanne Olivier, Mat Pillans, Joe Root, Jonny Tattersall (wicketkeeper), Jordan Thompson, David Willey
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