Let's get this started then.
Goodwin on fire as Sussex turn up the heat
Sussex 521-8 v Essex
Peter English in Colchester
Thursday August 21, 2003
The Guardian
For three seasons Murray Goodwin and his opening partner Richard Montgomerie have stood at opposite ends like Brighton's piers. Until this match it had been a slow burning season for the Sussex pair but yesterday they were on fire.
Goodwin's glow lasted most of the day and it was his fearsome first-wicket stand with Montgomerie that banished the doubts over the team's capacity to deal with the pressure of being only five points away from the First Division leaders Surrey, who face Leicestershire at Grace Road today.
When Mohammad Akram finally broke through Goodwin's defence with a new-ball yorker, he had a career-best 210 from 270 balls, including 101 in the second session. Goodwin's nimble footwork - whether skipping down to the spinners or going back to pull the pacemen - was outstanding and many of his 30 fours and two sixes came in clusters. There were three boundaries in one Jon Dakin over as soon as he had passed his century and then four off the part-time leg-spin of Darren Robinson took him past 150.
Out of contract at the end of the season, Goodwin's display was a timely and forceful claim for retention after a slow season and an average of 36 before this match.
The partnership with Montgomerie began when Goodwin turned his back on international cricket with Zimbabwe and joined the county in 2001. Since then they have shared partnerships, records and player-of-the-season awards. Yesterday they cantered at almost five runs an over in the 202-run stand - only their second century partnership of the season - as they took the game away from the hosts.
Montgomerie was comfortably first to a half-century, his fourth in five innings, but when he fell for 97 he had almost been caught by Goodwin. Both had given chances - Will Jefferson spilled edges from consecutive Graham Napier deliveries when Goodwin was 17 and Montgomerie 24 - and the damage was felt by Essex, in seventh place and relegation trouble, with every run.
Things got worse for them when Tony Palladino was taken off on a stretcher with a suspected dislocated shoulder and when the Sussex wicketkeeper Matthew Prior hit a century in 86 balls as his side made a massive first-day total.
After Prior's flurry it was hard to decide what should frighten Essex more: the ease at which Sussex scored or the prospect of facing the leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed on a pitch already puffing dust and taking turn.
Goodwin on fire as Sussex turn up the heat
Sussex 521-8 v Essex
Peter English in Colchester
Thursday August 21, 2003
The Guardian
For three seasons Murray Goodwin and his opening partner Richard Montgomerie have stood at opposite ends like Brighton's piers. Until this match it had been a slow burning season for the Sussex pair but yesterday they were on fire.
Goodwin's glow lasted most of the day and it was his fearsome first-wicket stand with Montgomerie that banished the doubts over the team's capacity to deal with the pressure of being only five points away from the First Division leaders Surrey, who face Leicestershire at Grace Road today.
When Mohammad Akram finally broke through Goodwin's defence with a new-ball yorker, he had a career-best 210 from 270 balls, including 101 in the second session. Goodwin's nimble footwork - whether skipping down to the spinners or going back to pull the pacemen - was outstanding and many of his 30 fours and two sixes came in clusters. There were three boundaries in one Jon Dakin over as soon as he had passed his century and then four off the part-time leg-spin of Darren Robinson took him past 150.
Out of contract at the end of the season, Goodwin's display was a timely and forceful claim for retention after a slow season and an average of 36 before this match.
The partnership with Montgomerie began when Goodwin turned his back on international cricket with Zimbabwe and joined the county in 2001. Since then they have shared partnerships, records and player-of-the-season awards. Yesterday they cantered at almost five runs an over in the 202-run stand - only their second century partnership of the season - as they took the game away from the hosts.
Montgomerie was comfortably first to a half-century, his fourth in five innings, but when he fell for 97 he had almost been caught by Goodwin. Both had given chances - Will Jefferson spilled edges from consecutive Graham Napier deliveries when Goodwin was 17 and Montgomerie 24 - and the damage was felt by Essex, in seventh place and relegation trouble, with every run.
Things got worse for them when Tony Palladino was taken off on a stretcher with a suspected dislocated shoulder and when the Sussex wicketkeeper Matthew Prior hit a century in 86 balls as his side made a massive first-day total.
After Prior's flurry it was hard to decide what should frighten Essex more: the ease at which Sussex scored or the prospect of facing the leg-spinner Mushtaq Ahmed on a pitch already puffing dust and taking turn.
