Sussex Dominates Warwickshire as Draw Beckons

The Sussex Cricket team had quite the start against Warwickshire in their County Championship Division One match. At the time of this writing, the match is now in its fourth day. When play finally resumed on the third morning, Sussex were in complete control of the match. The hosts declared their second innings at 126 for 3, a healthy 200 run lead over their rivals.

Sussex amassed a mammoth first innings total of 528. That effort provided them with a healthy first-innings lead of 74 runs. The team struck early in the third morning, putting pressure on Warwickshire as they resumed play at 223 for 3. That pressure would come to be extremely important as Warwickshire were never able to find their feet with the bat, falling to 252 for 5. They were tumbling at certain moments, at 153 for 6, but they found a way back and posted 379 runs, doing enough to evade the follow-on.

Though Warwickshire fought back, they were never able to recover from an early onslaught as Sussex dominated from start to finish in the match. Sussex’s accomplishment bumps them up to seven points in the overall standings. That success not only brought their first title, but ensured survival in County Championship Division One. In contrast, Warwickshire’s attacking play had brought them six points, but they had been on the back foot in this battle from the start.

Going into the last two hours of play, Sussex intensified the attack on the opponents’ batting order to cause concern. Their wins left their opponents with few paths to victory. The leading side has a margin of 200 runs, but the clock is ticking. Unless unexpected drama unfolds in the last hours of legislative play, it appears both sides will leave with a victory—a stalemate.