Fifty for Michael Burgess as friendly with Surrey ends in draw

Sussex finished their pre-season programme with a draw against Surrey at The 1st Central County Ground on Tuesday.

Day two had much in common with the first, with a washed out morning session, early inroads whilst the ball was new and then a healthy partnership for the batting side.

It was Sussex’s turn to bat when play got underway at 1pm following Surrey’s overnight declaration on 189-3.

Plentiful seam movement and a slow pitch which made it tricky to time the ball – no real surprise given the moisture in the ground and the fact that this was a used strip – caused difficulties for the batsmen early on.

Phil Salt (9) was the first man to go; the victim of a fullish delivery that stuck in the pitch and threw out his timing as he attempted to drive Matt Pillans down the ground. His leading edge picked out Freddie van der Bergh at mid-on with the score on 18.

Harry Finch (2) fell three balls later, edging behind to Ollie Pope and giving Pillans his second wicket.

Stiaan van Zyl gave a hint of the tremendous form he has been in the South African first-class competition when he joined Luke Wells in the middle. A beautiful straight drive off Matt Dunn was particularly aesthetically pleasing.

But after a very brief interruption for bad light, van Zyl received a fine seaming delivery from the same bowler that beat his defences and took out his off stump.

In the meantime, Wells had looked as organised as ever. His judgement outside the off-stump was impeccable and the balls he did have to play he met with the kind of soft hands that a regular user of a leading brand of washing-up liquid would have been proud of.

As the ball itself started to soften and Surrey’s frontline bowlers were replaced in the attack, Wells began to up the tempo. He hit a sweetly-timed short-arm pull off Rikki Clarke that sailed over the boundary rope in front of the scoreboard, following that up with three drives through the off-side for four.

Having reached 41, however, he too was undone by seam movement when Clarke had him caught behind to leave Sussex four down for 74.

That brought Michael Burgess to the crease and he and Luke Wright began to build a partnership. Initially, it was a case of looking to find gaps in the field and pick up ones and twos.

Once the pair had been together for around ten overs, runs started to come more easily. Burgess was excellent in driving down the ground, whilst Wright brought out his trademark cut shot on a number of occasions.

Soon after putting on fifty for the fifth wicket, Wright retired on 35 to give some time to in the middle to David Wiese before the end of the Sussex innings which the captains agreed would come at around 5.15pm.

There was time for Burgess to bring up his half century off 74 balls, before Wiese’s dismissal for 16 brought an end to the innings at 183-5.

That left 45 minutes or so for a few more overs for the Sussex bowlers. After a very tidy opening spell from Sharma and a pacey burst from Stuart Whittingham, Wiese then had Will Jacks caught low-down by Finch at second slip with his third ball.

A solitary over from Stiaan van Zyl brought the match to a close, with Surrey finishing on 31-1 and the match drawn.

The season proper gets underway on Friday with Sussex making the trip to Edgbaston for their opening Specsavers County Championship match of 2018.