Sussex finish pre-season tour with comprehensive victory over Durham MCCU

Making their first appearances in a Sussex shirt in 2018, Luke Wright and Harry Finch blasted centuries in the final match of the pre-season tour to Cape Town.

Abi Sakande then showed the benefits of his winter in Australia with four wickets as the Sharks romped to a 163-run victory against Durham MCCU.

With Sussex batting first at Claremont CC, Wright was involved in a 156-run opening partnership with Luke Wells, who completed a clean sweep of tour fifties.

In a perfectly paced innings, Wright began cautiously before shifting rapidly through the gears. By the time he was dismissed for 138, he’d forced the fielders to return the ball from the boundary on 19 occasions, nine of them after the ball had sailed over the rope.

Having shown his swashbuckling side in the matches against Middlesex, Wells was content to play an anchoring role and leave his namesake to plunder the bowling.

The left-hander’s dismissal for 58 off 82 balls brought another southpaw to the crease, and Finch began by also playing a supporting role. When Wright was finally caught for 138, however, Finch assumed top billing.

Having reached fifty when that second wicket fell with the score on 260, the 23-year-old was then merciless. He raced to a century, and his final eleven scoring shots included six sixes.

Ben Brown joined in the fun with a quick-fire 31 and he was followed by Phil Salt who did his best to give Finch the strike, as well as striking a couple of lusty blows himself.

When Salt was caught for 13 off the last ball of the innings, Finch was left unbeaten with 116 and Sussex had posted 371-4 from their fifty overs.

That was always going to be a tough ask for Durham MCCU, and their task became even harder when Jofra Archer – bowling for the first time on this tour – picked up two early wickets.

Whilst Archer made the breakthroughs, his new ball partner Ollie Robinson gave nothing away at the other end, bowling an opening six over spell that went for just 14 runs. He was rewarded with a wicket in his second spell.

Ultimately, it was Abi Sakande who did the most damage for Sussex, recording figures of 4-42 from 9.2 overs and finishing the match off with wickets in eight balls.

There was also a wicket for Luke Wells to round off a successful tour and two for Will Beer, including the stumping by Ben Brown of Durham MCCU opener, Will Fraine.

Fraine – a 21-year-old on Worcestershire’s book - deserves special mention for a 99-ball 111, a performance made all the more remarkable by the fact that the next highest score in the innings was 24.

The Sussex touring party arrive back in the UK on Friday, before taking on Hampshire in a two-day friendly that starts at The Aegeas Bowl on Monday.