Olly chips in with wickets to celebrate England call
OLLY Stone celebrated his England call-up with two wickets as promotion-chasing Warwickshire turned the screw against Sussex in their Sepcsavers County Championship clash at Hove.
After being bowled out for 440, Keith Barker’s three-wicket burst with the new ball left Sussex, a batsman down because of opener Tom Haines’ ankle injury, reeling on 14 for three.
Luke Wells and Michael Burgess effected a recovery of sorts, adding 72, before Stone, whose first over had cost 12 runs, hit back with wickets in successive overs.
Burgess, who had hit nine fours in his 46, was beaten for pace and lost his offstump, then Wells (26) was strangled down the leg side.
Stone’s burst left Sussex 87 for five and a long way off the follow-on target of 291, but skipper Ben Brown and David Wiese counter-attacked impressively thereafter.
Stone said: “It’s a dream come true for me and I’m looking forward to going out there and showing what I can do.
“I found out after we’d finished warming up this morning. Ed Smith (chairman of selectors) rang me, which was a nice feeling.
“Before I meet up with the squad we’ve got a couple of big games with Warwickshire. That’s what I’m focused on for now, hopefully getting a good result here against Sussex and then Kent next week so we can go up as champions. “England’s one-day team have been very good so it’s going to be hard to break into the team, but I’m looking forward to going out there and showing what I can do.’’ Wiese made a 62-ball half-century and Brown his seventh of the season in 67 deliveries with both hitting seven fours. By stumps they had scored 137 in 24 overs to take their side to 224 for five, still 216 behind. But the Bears are still handily placed to force the victory that would secure promotion and set up a title decider against Kent at Edgbaston next week. They would have been in an even better position had it not been for an afternoon collapse, which saw them lose six wickets for 19 runs, four of them to Jofra Archer, who ripped through the tail by taking the last four wickets in 11 balls. Warwickshire lost Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott before lunch, but not before both had improved on their outstanding individual records against Sussex. Bell’s 112 took his aggregate against the county to 1,518 runs at an average of 65. The pair extended their third-wicket stand to 230 – a new Warwickshire record against Sussex at Hove – before Bell, who had faced 260 balls and hit one six and 11 fours, was leg before sweeping Danny Briggs.
Trott will retire next week with 1,879 runs against Sussex, nearly 700 more than he has made against any other county, after scoring 124, his seventh hundred against them with power to add if he has to bat again here.
Trott eventually clipped a ball from Wiese to mid-wicket and after Sam Hain (53) shouldered arms to lose his off-stump to Ollie Robinson the innings went into a tailspin.
Wiese said: “It was important to be positive and try and take the game back to Warwickshire a bit.
“Hopefully we can build on the stand we’ve got going in the morning.
“Ben and I always try to bat positively and we have scored quickly.
“We’ve really got to win to stay in the promotion race but there is still a lot of hard work to do against a quality side, but we’ve given ourselves a bit of a chance.’’
It’s a dream come true for me and I’m looking forward to going out there and showing what I can do. Olly Stone