Cricket: Newell replies in the positive

Sussex 313-8 v Glamorgan

AFTER A shaky prelude, Sussex staged a revival yesterday thanks to two bit-part players in this season's Championship cast. Both Keith Newell and Rajesh Rao played in the early games before being consigned to the second XI and they have only recently returned to the fray.

In the first hour the Glamorgan opening bowlers, Owen Parkin and Andrew Davies, found fire and movement in a greenish wicket, reducing the home side to 20 for 3 before the Sussex captain, Chris Adams, orchestrated a recovery. As the early juice burned out of the grass he began to punch the ball up and down the Hove hill with Rao in respectful support.

But respect suddenly ceased just before lunch when Rao called his captain for a tight single, changed his mind and scuttled back to safety. Adams, perhaps assuming that Rao would do the decent thing, charged onwards. Rao then forged the 97-run partnership with Newell that cemented Sussex's recovery. It was ended by Davies, who found Rao's inside edge with his second ball. But Newell still had work to do and formed a new alliance with the tall all-rounder, Robin Martin-Jenkins.

Matthew Maynard's tactic of mostly sticking with his pace quartet of Parkin, Davies, Dale and Darren Thomas was beginning to resemble a one-tune orchestra when Dale held one back and Newell looped the ball to extra cover.

Eleven fours and a brace of sixes confirmed Newell's positive attitude to both his and his team's recovery, a process that was continued by Martin- Jenkins, who notched a career-best score before falling in the final over.