Winter Watch | Week 15

It's been a long winter. Yet as the sun slips through and the temperature rises, the thought of playing cricket again doesn't feel quite as unrealistic as previously thought. We're only a few weeks away until we host Kent in our opening pre-season fixture, but in countries far away a few Sussex representatives continue to play. It's March, it's Monday; the penultimate edition of Winter Watch is here.

Jofra Archer

Four weeks later, and we've reached the World Cup semi-finals. And it's a rather large beast that Archer and England will have to navigate if they are to reach Sunday's Final: India. 

But it's been a campaign that has seemed to improve with each passing game. Three victories from as many matches in the Super 8s phase of the competition, with Archer featuring throughout. Since the last Winter Watch they have beaten both Pakistan and New Zealand, with the Sussex quick taking two wickets but bowling particularly economically in both to help set up Thursday's semi-final with India (1.30pm GMT).

Anna Buckle

A final outing of the winter for Buckle, and she saved her most economical outing for it. A victory, too, in what has been a brilliantly successful winter for the seamer out in Sydney - culminating in a crushing win over Penrith.

Skittling the hosts for 100 in this One Day match, Buckle's seven overs with the ball went for just seven runs. Throw in a wicket as well and this was a performance of pure prominence and skill. She returns to England next weekend as preparations for our women's team begin to ramp up.

James Coles

Over in Abu Dhabi, Coles settled swiftly back into the England Lions setup, with some outstanding showings with both bat and ball in their opening four matches with Pakistan Shaheens. 

A 3-0 series win in the T20s, they then followed that up with a victory in the opening One Day match - the first of a scheduled five. However, due to the ongoing unrest in the area, yesterday's scheduled fixture was cancelled, with an unsurprising question mark looming over the rest of the series. 

And as Coles' winter may just have drawn to a close, it has been a quite remarkable few months for the all-rounder who'll return to Sussex soon ahead of the fresh County Championship campaign. 

Dan Hughes

It's been some time since our previous Dan Hughes update - who will be with us for the duration of this forthcoming season - following a successful stint in the BBL this winter. Since its conclusion he's been back playing at Eastern Suburbs, and he's earned some silverware in the process.

Lifting the First Grade Limited-Overs Cup, Hughes excelled with the bat: 141 from 124 deliveries. This was comfortably his finest stint in the middle this winter in what propelled his side to a 42-run win over Fairfield-Liverpool. Hughes will be landing in England soon ahead of the new season, and he arrives in fine form following a busy yet profitable winter in Australia.

Dan Ibrahim

A tricky outing last week was soon forgotten after Ibrahim batted resiliently for his Central HB side on Saturday, grinding out an unbeaten 56* albeit in defeat to Havelock North. With the ball he picked up a wicket, but it was his team's top score with the bat that ultimately gave Ibrahim the credit this past weekend.

George Thomas

A second defeat in a row for Thomas' Cornwall over in New Zealand, with the Sussex all-rounder opening the batting here in his side's loss to Napier Old Boys. 8 runs off the bat, he'd have heightened success with the ball this time around, picking up a wicket in his six-over spell. 

Update from Paul Farbrace

Last week, we sat down with Head Coach Paul Farbrace to discuss a difficult winter period. In this interview, he provides an in-depth view into our recent points deductions, an update on the squad, captaincy changes and a look ahead to forthcoming pre-season schedule. This can be viewed here on our YouTube channel.

Whilst on the topic of Sussex players abroad, a healthy-sized cohort have travelled to South Africa for some warm winter training. Having flown out last week, they will return in roughly 10 days ahead of our opening pre-season fixture on Thursday, 19 March.