Date-stamped : 01 Aug95 - 14:30 ====> Day 1 Sussex suffer at hands of England reject By Clive Ellis at Lord's First day of four: Middx 415-2 v Sussex REMOVE Mark Ramprakash from the psychiatrist's couch of Test cricket and he is transformed into a batsman of relaxed self-confidence. Ramprakash was, admittedly, dropped on 15 and 95, but otherwise he played superbly to make an unbeaten 185 and shared an unbroken third-wicket stand of 222 with Mike Gatting (92 not out). Middlesex must already be scenting a seventh championship victory this season to increase the pressure on Warwickshire and Northamptonshire at the top of the tale. The last thing that the bottom side Sussex needed, in their present state of turmoil, was a day of humiliating toil in the field. More galling still was the fact that the punishment could have been avoided. Alan Wells, the Sussex captain, elected to put Middlesex in, believing that conditions would be at their most helpful for bowling early on. But it was a decision that backfired horribly and if this pitch increasingly favours spin, in line with previous Lord's wickets this season, Sussex will be at Phil Tufnell's mercy. Wells had precious little help from his attack in making the gamble pay off: Ian Salisbury, fresh from 11 wickets in the match against Leicestershire, reverted to an unacceptable quota of four-balls, and Sussex's misery was complete when Franklyn Stephenson limped off in mid-over immediately after tea with a sprained ankle. The suffering had only just begun for Sussex The pattern of the day was set by largely untroubled accumulation of the Middlesex openers, Paul Weekes and Toby Radford, in a stand of 74 before Radford was well caught down the leg-side by Peter Moores. Weekes and Ramprakash then added 119 in 29 overs for the second wicket. Weekes made 80, his highest championship score this season, but miscued a pull off Salisbury with a century beckoning. The suffering had only just begun for Sussex as Ramprakash, particularly strong on the off-side, and Gatting made batting look absurdly easy. Ramprakash, whose two lives were at the hands of Keith Newell, twice hit three fours off successive balls, firstly off Salisbury and later off Danny Law, whose reputation as a fast bowler has receeded while his batting has blossomed. An on-driven four off the unfortunate Newell took Ramprakash to his hundred off 163 balls and thereafter he scored at almost a run-a-ball. By the close, he had hit 30 sumptuous boundaries, while Gatting lost little by comparison. ====> Day 2 Nash puts Sussex to the sword By Clive Ellis at Lord's Second day of four: Sussex (201 & 13-0) trail Middlesex (602-7 dec) by 388 runs MIDDLESEX supporters have seen only tantalising glimpses of Dion Nash's all-round talent this season, but the New Zealander played a full part in subjugating Sussex yesterday. An unbeaten fifty, only his second in the championship, assisted Middlesex in their arrogant march to a declaration half an hour after lunch, and Nash inflicted wounds from which Sussex never fully recovered by taking the wickets of Bill Athey and Keith Newell in the first four balls of the innings. Sussex, whose place at the bottom of the table looks ever more secure, limped to a single batting point before being bowled out 401 runs adrift. Mike Gatting, 92 not out overnight, did his best to run himself out on 99 but survived to make his second century in successive championship innings. He and Mark Ramprakash, who completed his second double-hundred of the season, were both deserved victims for left-arm pace bowler Jason Lewry in a hostile opening spell. The easy paced pitch suddenly seemed less of a batting paradise as Nash and Richard Johnson reduced Sussex to nine for three. Alan Wells, so misguided in putting Middlesex in, made partial amends with an innings of 61 before becoming Nash's third victim. ====> Day 3 Sussex look for net gains after innings defeat By Clive Ellis at Lord's Third day of four: Middx (602-7d) bt Sussex (201 & 115) by an innings and 286 runs SUSSEX'S players were straight into the nets at Lord's after tumbling to the most humiliating of losses. It was not, insisted captain Alan Wells, a "naughty boys" parade but a voluntary turn-out of players eager to exorcise the nightmare of their defeat by an innings and 286 runs by Middlesex. There were almost five sessions remaining when the final wicket was taken. The victors, barely inconvenienced by the absence of Angus Fraser and John Emburey on Test duty, issued an articulate warning to Warwickshire and Northamptonshire, the two sides above them in the table. Sussex, floundering at the bottom, must work on the optimistic basis that a day is a long time in cricket: if they beat Middlesex in the Sunday League today and the other results go their way they will be joint top. A side can be forgiven for clutching at one-day straws when they have experienced the sort of season that Sussex have suffered. Their fruitless run-chase against Leicestershire on Monday left them last in the championship and two days later cricket manager Norman Gifford fell on his sword. It all sounded like a chapter from football's book of 'instant success or else', but cricket has embraced the manager, under various titles, and it now seems to accept the equivalent penalties for failure. Statements from Gifford and Alan Caffyn, the Sussex chairman, paid lip service to the concept that pressure for results is an accepted part of the modern game. Wells may have lost Gifford's wise counsel, but he is not quite a man alone: either David Smith or Chris Waller, the county's batting and bowling coaches, will be on hand to lend support for the rest of the season. Smith said after yesterday's abject batting display: "It was going to go one way or another with the manager leaving. We were either going to win easily or get hammered." But the margin of defeat would certainly have been reduced if Wells had taken the safe option by batting on the first day. It was not, he explained, a mere personal whim. Nor was he signficantly influenced by the fact that two years ago he chose to bat at Lord's and Sussex lost by an innings. "It was overcast, showers were forecast and there was a bit of moisture in the pitch," he said. He had the backing of Sussex's other senior pros and also sought out the Lord's know-how of umpire Allan Jones, a former Middlesex seamer. The theorising was exposed by an imposing batting performance from Middlesex, and in particular by a double hundred of sublime quality from Mark Ramprakash. Mike Gatting, whose run-making exploits this season have been unspectacular by his own elevated standards, showed, with a second successive championship hundred, that he too is ready to bolster Middlesex's push for the title. Sussex bowled indifferently and proceeded to bat with even less distinction on a pitch which remained well behaved. Ian Salisbury and Phil Tufnell turned only the occasional delivery. "We can't hide from the fact that we've batted badly for the past two years," said Wells. He put this display in the same class as their dreadful showing against Derbyshire at the start of the season when they lost by an innings and 379 runs. "People talk about form. I prefer to talk about confidence," added the Sussex captain. "Understandably everyone was a bit low before we came here. It's up to the senior players to pick up the younger guys." One hard-to-explain feature of last season was that Wells slipped from his outstanding standards of the previous five seasons and Sussex still mounted a credible challenge for the championship. This year he is back to his best and they have struggled from the word go. It is easy to point to the absence of Martin Speight, still laid low by a debilitating virus, as a crucial element in Sussex's demise, but the batting has been lamentably inconsistent, and Ed Giddins has been the only reliable wicket-taker. Middlesex's concern is simply to keep the momentum of three successive innings victories going, and on present form they look quite capable of repeating their 1993 success. They might have expected a full day's toil yesterday - Sussex began with all their second innings wickets intact - but Dion Nash quickly intervened in an uncanny echo of Sussex's first innings. As then he took two wickets in his first over: his opening ball was edged by Jamie Hall to third slip, then Keith Newell presented wicketkeeper Keith Brown with the first of his five victims. Richard Johnson bowled superbly in an opening spell of 9-5-9-2, taking the wickets of Bill Athey and Peter Moores, and is emerging as a seamer of England potential. Wells, honest as ever, accepted that ill-chosen strokes were behind the majority of Sussex dismissals, though Franklyn Stephenson was undone by a rearing delivery from Nash which he could only glove to Brown. The spin of Tufnell and Paul Weekes settled the issue as only Keith Greenfield, who went in at five and finished unbeaten on 24, showed the necessary application for Sussex. Source :: The Electronic Telegraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/) Contributed by The Management (help@cricinfo.com)