By Clive Ellis at Tunbridge Wells
First day of four: Kent (0-0) trail Sussex (189) by 189 runs
SHAUN Humphries has had to show tremendous patience during the five-year wait for his championship debut. The same quality served Sussex admirably as they dug themselves out of a deep hole yesterday.
If Humphries gained his chance a little by default - Peter Moores decided last month that it was too onerous a task to coexist as wicketkeeper and coach - he has grasped the opportunity over the past three matches.
Chris Adams and Michael Bevan are inevitably seen as the catalysts for Sussex's success with the bat but both failed yesterday, leaving the field clear for Humphries and James Kirtley to reprise their determined resistance against Worcestershire at the weekend with an eighth-wicket stand of 102 in 62 overs.
Initially, Steve Marsh's decision to put Sussex in looked eccentric but the introduction of Matthew Fleming in the eighth over first reduced the scoring to a trickle then accounted for the Sussex openers, Toby Peirce and Wasim Khan.
More significantly, Adams hooked Ben Phillips to fine leg, Bevan sliced low to Trevor Ward in the gully and when Jamie Carpenter was hoodwinked by Carl Hooper's arm-ball Sussex were reeling at 56 for five. All this without Kent bowling more than adequately on a hard pitch without much pace.
The afternoon session was purely a battle for survival as 46 overs yielded just 56 runs and two wickets.
Kirtley, who helped Humphries add 79 against Worcestershire, resumed their alliance at 84 for seven and though both were dropped they batted with good sense and self-discipline. Both made career-best scores before being dismissed off successive balls 20 minutes from the close.
Day 2: Bevan's mixed bag brings out the best
By Clive Ellis at Tunbridge Wells
Second day of four: Sussex (189 & 46-0) lead Kent (211) by 24 runs
JASON LEWRY and Michael Bevan, representing the conventional and non-conformist branches of the left-armers' union, brought Sussex back on to an even keel after Kent had threatened to build a telling first-innings advantage.
The cricket, so far, has failed to match the tree-lined splendour of the Nevill Ground. Batsmen have found every conceivable means of getting out on a slow and increasingly low pitch made for the grafter.
There were a few more attacking strokes yesterday to please the attentive crowd, but Lewry's swing and Bevan's mixed bag of chinamen, googlies and seamers winkled out seven of the Kent wickets between them.
In the absence of a specialist spinner, Bevan was given an extended bowl and responded with the wickets of Matthew Fleming, Steve Marsh and Ben Phillips in quick succession. His figures of three for 36 equalled his best in this country.
Robert Key and Matthew Walker, who began the season vying for the right to open the batting with David Fulton, top-scored with 45 apiece, but it was tough going.
Carl Hooper had one of his no-compromise days, lofting a three and a four before being lbw to Mark Robinson attempting a similar, ill-considered flourish. It was his sixth single-figure score in eight championship innings, though his other contributions have been 203 and 94.
Wasim Kahn and Toby Peirce played positively in the final 18 overs to complete a satisfying day for Sussex.
Day 3: Adams toils for the greater good
By Clive Ellis at Tunbridge Wells
Third day of four: Sussex (189 & 265-5) lead Kent (211) by 243 runs
CHRIS ADAMS introduced the first note of measured aggression to give Sussex a reasonable chance of pressing for victory on the final day.
Adams has had plenty to occupy his mind over the past couple of months: new county, a first taste of leadership and a difficult baptism at international level.
His 84 here was his first innings of substance since his call-up for the Texaco Trophy games against South Africa and after his sucker-punch dismissal in the first innings - hooking to long leg - he showed more self-discipline, to the immense benefit of his team.
It is a clear indicator of Sussex's progress over the past year that they have looked at least the equal of a Kent side who have failed to rediscover the cohesion which brought them so close to honours on three fronts last season.
Sussex, held up by an hour-long rain stoppage early on, took control thanks to a second-wicket stand of 138 in 43 overs between Adams, the only right-hander in the top five, and Wasim Khan.
Adams, on 31, survived a chance to Alan Wells when he top-edged a pull off Matthew Fleming, but he reached his fifty off 91 balls and had a third century of the season in his sights when he cut Fleming to Min Patel at cover on the stroke of tea.
Khan had already gone for 72, his fourth score of fifty or more in his last six innings, and Patel rose above a generally undistinguished Kent performance in the field by bowling Jamie Carpenter and Michael Bevan.
A few deliveries turned and lifted out of the footmarks but the slowness of the pitch is a frustration to batsmen and bowlers alike.
Day 4: New-look Sussex maintain success
By Clive Ellis at Tunbridge Wells
Final day of four: Kent v Sussex
SUSSEX lost inside two days at the Nevill Ground in 1996. It was also a game Ed Giddins will remember without fondness.
The pace bowler, busy forging a promising career, was cast into the wilderness for 18 months when he failed a random drugs test and his subsequent departure to Warwickshire was the first upheaval in almost two years of trauma at Hove.
The Sussex side who took the field here and completed a 75-run victory to retain second place behind Surrey - contained not a single member of the team rolled over two years ago, though one player, Alan Wells, did line up for the opposition.
Sussex took their transitional 1997 season on the chin, refusing to make feeble excuses, and recruited with purpose. Chris Adams, disenchanted with Derbyshire, was lured by a promise of the captaincy and Michael Bevan was sensibly signed when Yorkshire opted to persevere with Darren Lehmann as their overseas player.
Wasim Khan, talented but starved of opportunity at Warwickshire, has added steel to the top of the order and the return to fitness of left-armed Jason Lewry has augmented the firepower and variety of the pace attack.
Not surprisingly, for someone plucked out of club cricket obscurity at the age of 23 and who missed the whole of last season because of a stress fracture of the back, 27-year-old Lewry has a 'play each game as if it's your last' philosophy.
He has already taken 24 championship wickets this season and with the ability to swing the ball in most conditions, he merits discussion at England selectorial level.
Yesterday was not one of Lewry's days. Nor was it an easy opportunity for Bevan to confuse batsmen with his eccentric assortment of chinamen and googlies.
Sussex, whose second innings owed its substance to a century stand between Adams and Wasim Khan on Friday, lost a couple of early wickets to Matthew Fleming but were still able to declare to set Kent a target of 282 in 84 overs.
Keith Newell, whose unpretentious medium pace was instrumental in Kent's first-innings lead being restricted to 22 runs, finished on 40 not out and James Kirtley also played some bold shots in the final few overs.
In conditions more conducive to quick scoring, Kent's task would have seemed undemanding, but this pitch has yielded runs grudgingly and the lush outfield has turned numerous potential fours into threes or twos.
A 37-run opening stand between Robert Key and David Fulton gave Kent a reasonable foundation, but Mark Robinson's on-the-spot seam bowling demanded respect and Alex Edwards gained more movement than any of his colleageus.
Key was caught behind off Edwards and Shaun Humphries, standing up to Robinson, moved smartly down the leg side to catch Fulton as well.
Inevitably, the most liberated piece of batting came from Carl Hooper, whose big scores have been easily outnumbered by single-figure contributions this season.
In the first half hour after lunch, he so monopolised the scoring, hitting Bevan for two straight sixes, that he added 32 runs while Trevor Ward mustered just a single.
Ward, however, was out first, caught at slip, and when Wells and Hooper were dismissed in successive overs, Kent were on the ropes. Hooper called Wells for a single which would have completed his fifty but Wells was short of his ground when Toby Peirce's short-range throw hit the stumps, and Hooper was still on 49 when he edged Edwards to Bevan at first slip. He had faced just 64 balls and hit six fours.
Fleming admitted that he was ``knackered'' after bowling almost 57 overs in the game, underlining Kent's unhealthy dependence on his steadiness, but he had to summon a little more energy as he and Matthew Walker added 47 for the sixth wicket.
A Bevan long hop accounted for Walker, though Newell needed two attempts to complete the catch as he raced in from deep square leg.