Brown puts Sussex through hoop

Sussex vWarwickshire

13 May 2000

AROUND MID-AFTERNOON it probably began to dawn on Sussex that they had missed out somewhere along the way. That was about the time that Warwickshire drew level with the home team's insubstantial offering of 224.

Thanks to David Hemp and, latterly, Dougie Brown, they continued to pull away like a powerboat from the shore and the wreckage of the Sussex attack was left bobbing helplessly in the wake. Brown, in particular, was instrumental in piling on the misery. He needed less than three hours to reach the second first-class hundred of his career and the powerful Scot cracked 18 boundaries on his way to three figures, which he reached shortly after tea.

Hemp had got close to a century himself, but he ended as he had begun - edgily. The first ball of the morning flew off the edge and hurtled to the boundary just wide of third slip. The Sussex captain Chris Adams quickly added to the cordon, so that there were five slips hanging in the current like a shoal of barracuda. They went hungry.

The left-hander adopted a more prudent attitude for a few overs, leaving the run-making to his captain Nick Knight. He picked up where he had left off the evening more, punctuating watchful prods with pushes and pulls that pierced the field. His departure was all the more surprising given his disciplined approach.

To the onlooker the flick to Will House at square leg, which the former Kent man clung on to, looked casual. That may be doing Knight a disservice, because it was definitely out of character with the rest of his innings. But casual or not, he was out, and just when he was looking set for a meatier score.

By then Hemp had got into his stride and not long afterwards he reached a welcome half-century. Warwickshire then lost a couple more wickets until Brown emerged to stem the tide.

He showed admirable balance between aggression and submission, strong on the on-side and assured through the off, his muscular sense of purpose took the pressure off Hemp, perhaps too much so, because the former Glamorgan batsman suddenly found himself temporarily becalmed on 90.

James Kirtley tempted Hemp to chase a wide delivery and the wicketkeeper Shaun Humphries sprang to his left for a fine catch to end more than four hours of resistance.

Brown's sense of responsibility prohibited him from doing anything rash and he arrived, chanceless at tea, having scored 97 of the afternoon session's 148 runs, and just one away from his hundred. That landmark was reached in typically belligerent fashion through midwicket off the 149th ball of his innings.