Wiese reflects on Man of the Match display against Essex

Sussex Sharks enjoyed an excellent start to the Vitality Blast on Wednesday night, beating Essex Eagles by 36 runs with some brilliant performances with the bat and ball. 

David Wiese was one of the Sharks to shine, with his stunning figures of 5-24 playing a huge part in Sussex's opening win of the 2018 campaign, and earning him @SussexCCC's Man of the Match award. 

Speaking after the match, the South African said: “It’s weird because I didn’t feel I bowled as well to get a five-fer, but sometimes in a match you get lucky and you execute your skills and it comes off.

"I was looking to close off the game and finish my spell on a high. My first over wasn’t very good and I was trying to pull it back after that.

“I just tried to get through the last over with minimum damage and give Jof [Archer] the chance to close out the game. Three wickets in the over wasn’t in my mind at all. But the fielders helped me."

Sussex come into the Vitality Blast with an array of attacking talent, highlighted in a starting XI against the Eagles that included Archer, Rashid Khan, the world's best T20 bowler, and Wiese, who has been in fabulous form all season. 

“We’ve all seen what Jofra is capable of at the death, he can bowl a yorker at will." said Wiese. "If you keep taking wickets in the middle overs then those coming in at the end don’t have any chance to set a tempo. Credit to all the bowlers tonight.

“I think there are definitely signs of a good attack there. I think we have all our bases covered even though we have two bowlers missing from that attack. CJ [Chris Jordan] is on national duty and hopefully Tymal [Mills] will be back soon.

"It’s going to be interesting when they’re back what team we’re going to put out. But I guess that’s a good headache to have as a coach.”

Of debutant Khan, Wiese said: “I saw him when he was a young 16-year-old kid in the World T20 in India in 2016, I played against him there and you could see there was something special about him then.

"You can see he just enjoys being out there, he has a smile on his face and enjoys the challenge. It’s great to have him with us and hopefully the boys can learn a lot from him.”