Day 1: Fortune swinging away from Sussex
By Neville Scott at Trent Bridge
First day of four: Sussex (49-3) trail Notts (275) by 226 runs
REPORTS of Sussex's rebirth, to adapt Mark Twain, may be slightly exaggerated. To be fair, their agenda is long-term but, choosing to exploit a grassy pitch on an oddly misty day of lavish swing, they allowed Notts some 50 more runs than conditions suggested.
Apart from Jim Kirtley, the Mashonaland mauler who so undid England 18 months ago when he wintered in Zimbabwe, the attack proved loose enough to concede 51 extras and four per over after Kirtley had reduced Notts to 16 for two.
Sussex's own start was worse. Losing new captain Chris Adams, run out by the bowler's deflection backing up, they were nought for two after 13 balls.
It is a jaded eye which fails to find uplift in a Paul Johnson innings. His 75-ball 68 and Paul Strang's determined 48, led the home revival. Though Michael Bevan's first five balls for Sussex brought two successes, the ninth wicket then added 57. With Bevan out lbw offering no shot to inswing 10 minutes from the close, Sussex have far to go today.
Day 2: Kirtley charges in to lift Sussex hopes
By Neville Scott at Trent Bridge
Second day of four: Notts (275 & 11-3) trail Sussex (324) by 38 runs
IT WILL be of immense cheer to their long-suffering followers that the three men who have brought Sussex back to an unlikely advantage, in a staff so youthful that just one player is over 32, are the youngest in the side.
On Wednesday Jim Kirtley, the match's best bowler, took several key wickets and gained three more with high pace - including Alex Wharf for a king pair - in 13 balls before the close yesterday.
As nightwatchman, he earlier gave Paul Strang his first Notts success and allowed left-handers Toby Peirce and Jamie Carpenter to combine and claw back parity.
It was stolid stuff. Apart from a half-hour when Strang lost his length, 56 reluctant runs off the bat emerged from 41 of the day's first overs until the century stand was posted 50 minutes after lunch.
Grim this all was but also utterly commendable and tactically crucial. Acceleration came against a modest attack shorn of Jason Gallian who pulled up with a badly torn groin muscle which may keep him out two weeks.
Peirce, another Durham product, whose one century last September took 5.5 hours and who has begun a sequence of 401 runs in eight innings, sadly went for 96 in almost identical time as Mathew Dowman's gentle inswing claimed a rare scalp.
Carpenter, son of a Cheshire cricketer and himself good enough to play county-level football and rugby, reached a career best 171-ball 65 before being run out seeking a single to Strang at point.
With Sussex again afloat, Keith Newell added an unselfish 48 in pursuit of batting points before Kirtley's late burst.
Day 3: Seven up for Kirtley sees Sussex home
By Neville Scott at Trent Bridge
Sussex (324 & 74-6) bt Nottinghamshire (275 & 122) by 4 wkts
IT IS perhaps as well for Nottinghamshire that Trent Bridge's extensive reconstruction has shifted some of the circuit's most mordant critics, their barbs enough to make even builders blush, from their perch at the Radcliffe Road End.
Watching their side go from 11 for three overnight to 23 for seven by the ninth over of the day, they would have been in their element. More than bad batting, however, they had missed pace bowling of the highest calibre: James Kirtley, dare one breath it, seems destined to be the next in line of young England bowlers.
His combination of speed with full length inswing which did for Mathew Dowman and Usman Afzaal, first ball, both lbw, would have been lethal enough for most. After Paul Johnson had cut Jason Lewry on to his stumps, Kirtley then had Wayne Noon for a pair, beautifully taken low at slip, one of three outstanding catches by Chris Adams in the match.
By then Kirtley, after three wickets in his first 13 balls on Thursday, had carried the sequence to six for three in 39 deliveries. Poor Dowman has now been swept aside by him in four of his last seven innings for 10 runs in all.
Well might three batsmen - Jason Gallian with a runner after tearing his groin - confer in the middle. In fact, Gallian and Paul Strang opted for counter-attack, adding 83 in 19 overs before Lewry removed both.
When Kirtley beat last man Andy Oram for pace with his third ball after lunch, his career-best seven for 29 also became the summer's top analysis. ``I wasn't even aware until my ninth over that David Graveney [chairman of selectors] was watching - and by then I was tired out!'' he said.
He would certainly not have expected to bat. But Sussex are unused to lofty championship heights and, bizarrely slipping from 52 for nought to 69 for six against Strang and Alex Wharf's own swing, that just seemed possible before the winning 74th run came from a wide.