By D J Rutnagur at Hove
First day of four: Sussex 371-7 v Middlesex
A PITCH green enough to be almost undistinguishable from the rest of the square prompted Sussex to omit their spinner and Middlesex to include seamer James Hewitt, who had not taken a wicket since the last week of June.
Under these circumstances Middlesex must have been pleasantly surprised that Chris Adams elected to bat first. Yet Adams was the toast of the day for a glorious 170 - his fourth century for Sussex and his highest score for the county.
However, any hopes that Middlesex might have had of seizing the initiative were unfulfilled. The pitch had none of the pace and bounce its appearance promised. If, indeed, there was any reward to be had, Middlesex's attack, minus Angus Fraser, was not good enough to reap it.
Middlesex had the better of the morning session as Adams hit 49 in less than an hour. Then, during a brief period when the sky clouded over, the ball moved about and Mark Newell and Toby Peirce were accounted for.
Having bowled two balls to Newell that nipped in, Tim Bloomfield confronted him with one that went away to induce a snick to second slip. Two runs later Chris Batt swung one in and claimed Peirce lbw.
But the pace attack came so easy to Adams and Michael Bevan, who together put on 96, that Phil Tufnell and Paul Weekes bowled 27 overs in tandem either side of lunch.
Tufnell, with a drifter, had Bevan caught at slip and for a while imposed restraint on Adams, who nevertheless reached a polished hundred off 150 balls during a 152-run stand with Rajesh Rao, who contributed his first half-century of the season.
Sussex batsman Neil Taylor announced yesterday that he will retire at the end of this season after 19 years in the first-class game.
Day 2: Famine goes on as Sussex take two days
By Rob Steen at Hove
Sussex 392 beat Middlesex 142 & 90 by an innings and 160 runs
AT one juncture yesterday morning, while the visiting batsmen were hurtling like lemmings towards the precipice, the scoreboard operators reduced Sussex's total from 392 to 292.
After 2.5 months without a championship victory, a famine of biblical proportions for a club so accustomed to gorging on opposing inadequacies, are Middlesex beginning to attract pity? After this humiliating two-day trouncing, a damn good giggle was more in order.
And small wonder. Granted, the muggy conditions provided appreciably more aerial movement for the home seamers than their counterparts had enjoyed, Jason Lewry (eight for 63 all told) unleashing any number of wicked missiles as Middlesex subsided with scarcely a peep of resistance for 142 and 90 on a grassy yet largely blameless pitch to lose by an innings and 160 runs their heaviest defeat for more than a decade. For all that, the impression of a team willing the season to end was inescapable.
The one obvious exception was Jamie Hewitt, who began proceedings in upbeat fashion by polishing off the Sussex innings with a spell of three for eight. A year ago this rangy blond from Southwark looked as if he had tried on Angus Fraser's seven-league boots and found them the snuggest of fits, most noticeably when he demolished Glamorgan for 31.
This season, sadly, he has suffered a crisis of confidence, apparently instigated by a walloping in an AXA League match.
Until yesterday, Hewitt had mustered only 18 first-class victims this term, and been dropped for his pains. His six scalps here, with due reward for persistence, accuracy and a modicum of swing, suggest self-belief may well be making a tentative comeback.
During the course of his fledgling career, Lewry, too, has endured his fair share of slings and arrows, having missed the whole of last summer with a back injury. That said, this strapping left-armer's subsequent form has rendered such a hiatus difficult to credit.
David Goodchild, leg-before retreating to the third ball of the Middlesex reply, obliged Lewry with his 50th wicket of the season; number 51 was Justin Langer, caught behind seven overs later.
Number 52 followed next ball as Mike Gatting, reactions diminishing faster than appetite, had his middle stump uprooted by an impeccable yorker.
When Robin Martin-Jenkins forced Mark Ramprakash to play on, perhaps surprising him for pace, Middlesex had lost their three prime run-getters in the space of nine balls, the point of no return reached with unseemly haste.
Time was when John Emburey would stroll in at this point to stiffen the lower order, but the Middlesex tail these days resembles nothing more threatening than a grass snake.
Keith Brown, arguably the only batsman capable of making Emburey appear elegant, hung around for a while, whereupon Lewry, rumbling in off a smooth, economical approach, pinned him in front with another full-length snorter.
Only in a last-wicket stand of 40 between Richard Johnson and Tim Bloomfield did bat confront ball with anything other than extreme meekness.
The rest was pure tragi-comedy. James Kirtley swept aside Goodchild, Langer, Gatting and Weekes in his opening burst, emulating Lewry's virtuous command of length. Ramprakash lost his leg stump driving at Martin-Jenkins and that was effectively that, Lewry picking up three wickets in seven deliveries as the last five dribbled away in 17 balls.