Madsen is superb as county on top
WAYNE Madsen’s brilliant century put Derbyshire in control of their LV Insurance County Championship game on the first day against Sussex at Hove.
The veteran bastman, in magnificent form this season, initially rescued the county from a perilous 83-4 then, in century partnerships with both Luis Reece and Anuj Dal, put Derbyshire in a strong position at 336-5 by the close.
As often this season, the statistics accompanying the day came thick and fast.
Madsen became only the third Derbyshire batsman to score three consecutive hundreds against the same county and his 171 not out is already the highest score by a Derbyshire man in Sussex, passing Les Townsend’s 167 at Eastbourne in 1938.
He has also now moved ahead of John Morris into second place in centuries scored for Derbyshire – both first-class and in all formats – with only Kim Barnett in front of him.
Before that, Shan Masood, when he reached nine, became the first player in the country to reach 1,000 first-class runs for the season.
In doing so in only 12 innings, he set another Derbyshire record, beating the 16 innings from which Peter Kirsten reached the mark in 1980.
Sussex, seeking their first Championship win since April 2021, had the better of the morning session after Derbyshire had chosen to bat.
The visitors lost Billy Godleman and Brooke Guest during a lively opening spell by left-armer Sean Hunt.
Godleman, struggling for runs this season, offered a low catch to Tom Alsop at slip after Hunt found some late away movement, then Guest lost his middle stump off a big inside edge attempting an expansive drive.
Masood, however, looked in the mood to make another big contribution, moving smoothly along at a run a ball.
It could have been costly for Sussex when he was badly dropped by wicketkeeper Oli Carter on 43 in Tom Haines’ first over.
No doubt to Carter’s great relief, however, Masood had added three more runs when he was pinned on his crease during an excellent spell down the slope by Steve Finn, who was making his first Championship appearance since the meeting at Derby in April.
He had hit eight fours in 48 from 51 balls.
Haines was then rewarded for his accuracy when he went round the wicket to Leus du Plooy and uprooted his leg stump as the batsman offered no shot.
Haines should have been celebrating again when Reece, with only a single to his name, drove to mid on but Hunt failed to hold on to the catch as he dived forward.
This time, it was to prove costly as Reece and Madsen added 120 in 36 overs for the fifth wicket.
Sussex’s seven-man attack plugged away but there was little assistance once the ball went soft and it took a misjudgement on Reece’s part to end the stand shortly after he had reached his 50, when he top-edged a sweep at Delray Rawlins and lobbed up a simple catch to Carter.
Madsen, though, became increasingly fluent and Dal was his now customary busy but careful self.
Madsen drove Archie Lenham through the covers shortly after tea to bring up his 40th hundred in all formats for Derbyshire – and the county’s 999th first-class century.
Sussex took the new ball immediately it became available but the remorseless Madsen soon had them back on the defensive again.
Dal had contributed 45 to their unbeaten stand of 136 in 40 overs by the close and they will fancy a good few more today.
Madsen both enjoyed the day and was wary about the work he still has to do.
“Hove is a great ground to play at and for the last couple of years we’ve had good wickets to bat on,” he said.
“I’ve gone past John Morris in terms of hundreds for Derbyshire today and I know he’s got a bottle of champagne waiting for me when I get back to Derby, so that is something to look forward to.
“We were in a bit of trouble early on. When the ball was harder, it nipped around a touch and when Sussex got it in decent areas it was pretty hard work, so it was nice to fight back with Luis Reece and Anuj Dal to get us into a decent position.
“We’re pretty happy but we’ve got a lot of hard work to get us to the score that we want then, hopefully, later on in the game, the wicket will bring our spinners into play.”
Sussex coach Ian Salisbury added: “Firstly, Madsen played very well on what is a good wicket.
“We had a good first session but we didn’t capitalise on that. The dropped catch when Reece was on one was crucial.
“We had to stick in and be unbelievably tight, but the outfield is the quickest I’ve ever seen here with a small boundary on one side and they got away from us a bit.”