Wonderful Wells back with a bang!
Paul Weaver sees Sussex prove too strong for downbeat Durham
Not even some notably dogged batting from Ryan Pringle could disguise the gulf between these sides as Sussex won their first Championship match of the season against Durham.
It was one of the worst defeats in Durham’s history. Sussex, meanwhile, were only two runs short of their best score at Hove (and they’ve been playing there since 1872), their 670 for nine declared against Northants in 1921, when Maurice Tate and Ted Bowley both made double centuries.
Their total also easily surpassed their previous best score against Durham – their 552 for eight declared at Hove in 1996.
The victory was built around that huge Sussex score in which Luke Wells, in his first Championship innings of the season, scored a career-best 258, well supported by Stiaan van Zyl, the South African Test player, who made 149.
Durham looked good on the first morning, when they were 72 for one on a good pitch. But they went to lunch on 90 for four after Vernon Philander took two wickets, the first of his Sussex career. Paul Coughlin and Pringle turned things around with a sixth wicket stand of 110, but Durham were all out for 287.
Then came that amazing Sussex innings, when Wells showed a previously well-hidden ability to strike the ball in the direction of oblivion. He hit 34 fours and seven sixes in an increasingly violent innings. He hit one over from Pringle for 6,6, 6, 4 ,4, 6. He wants to play 50-over cricket and this was a convincing application.
Wells said afterwards: “I’d been out injured for quite a while, so it was good to have some fun. The right knee injury started in June or July last season, from bowling. I just got through last season.
“Missing cricket made me hungrier. And while I was off I was able to work on some white ball cricket practice with Mike Yardy.”
Durham went into bat again a daunting 381 runs behind. And when they slid to 41 for four it looked certain to be over inside three days.
But some determined play by Pringle, who batted for four and a quarter hours for an unbeaten 38, and more defiance from Paul Collingwood, dragged the game into the fourth day on 97 for four before Sussex’s impressive array of fast bowlers finished off the job. James Weighell top-scored for Durham with 58, his maiden first-class fifty.
For Sussex supporters, upset at the announcement of Ed Joyce’s retirement, this was the best possible tonic. But Durham coach Jon Lewis looked worried.
“We can’t dwell on this but we have to give it a bit of thought and take some lessons out of it, even if they’re harsh lessons,” he said.