Notts women go down at hands of Sussex

The Sussex Women’s team won their fourth County Championship match on Sunday away to Nottinghamshire.

After a long journey up on Saturday it was the first time all the team were together, after a few months away from County Cricket and the team spirit in the evening was back to its best.

Sussex won the toss and decided to field first on a pitch that had seen a lot of the rain all week. Sussex didn’t start well, even though one wicket was taken early on, the bowlers were struggling to get their line and length. This was the same problem for most of the bowlers throughout the day, but wickets were being taken regularly. Nottinghamshire overseas player Rene Farrell played a very strong innings, finishing on 129 before being stumped by Sarah Taylor. Nottinghamshire were all out on the 48th over with a score of 179 on the board.

The pick of the bowlers for Sussex was Charlotte Russell who bowled tightly and took 5 for 29 off 8.4 overs, including the crucial wicket of England player Jenny Gunn. Alexia Walker and Charlotte Burton both took 2 wickets a piece.

The opening partnership of Sarah Taylor and Caroline Atkins again showed why these two open for their County and Country together. They both started the innings off well, hitting the ball into the gaps regularly and putting on a partnership of 86 before Sarah was run out for 45. Caroline then followed Sarah a few overs later after being caught for 38.

Rosalie Birch came in to steady the innings and played a perfectly timed innings, she was joined by Holly Colvin at the end and both players saw Sussex home to their fourth County Championship victory with 4 wickets down, with Rosalie finishing on 43 not out and Holly 23 not out.

The Women now have six matches left over the next few weeks to try and retain the County Championship.

A few days before their game at Nottinghamshire, Sussex took part in the first Twenty20 cup at Reading. They were without Sarah Taylor who had a back injury but was replaced by up and coming wicket keeper Carla Rudd from the under 15 side.

Sussex lost their first match to Kent by 20 runs and then started their second match against Berkshire and with a number of interruptions of rain the match was eventually abandoned after 19 overs. Surrey were due to play Sussex for the final day but after persistent rain during the night and the morning the game was abandoned.