County Championship: Farbrace content with first-game draw as Sussex share spoils at Edgbaston

Warwickshire and Sussex banked solid points from the draw after their high-scoring Rothesay County Championship Division 1 match drifted up the predictable cul-de-sac at Edgbaston.

Sussex declined to set up a contest on the final day, batting themselves safe before finally declaring their second innings on 313 for seven (Tom Alsop 82 not out from 131 balls). That set the home side a notional target of 388 in a minimum of 44 overs.

Warwickshire closed on 104 for two, Rob Yates ending unbeaten on 65 (82 balls) to complete his excellent start to the season with 180 runs for once out, three wickets and a catch in the match.

If the fourth day offered less than thrilling fare for the spectators, there was plenty of satisfaction from the match for both teams - Sussex on their return to Division 1 and Warwickshire having narrowly avoided relegation last year - at making a solid start to the season.

After Sussex resumed on the final morning on 126 for three, James Coles soon lifted Yates for a handsome straight six but the spinner hit back with his third wicket when nightwatchman Jack Carson scooped to Vishwa Fernando at short fine leg.

Coles (47, 94) was on the threshold of his second half-century of the match when he became Fernando’s first victim for Warwickshire, caught down the leg side by wicketkeeper Kai Smith.

In the hour before lunch it became clear that the match was going nowhere as Alsop and John Simpson plodded through a partnership of 47 from 15 overs. Simpson fell lbw to Dan Mousley just before the interval, after which Alsop continued to put his first innings first-baller firmly behind him by moving to a compact 100-ball half-century.

Alsop and Fynn Hudson-Prentice added 71 in 15 overs before their alliance ended in slapstick fashion. The batters were on different wavelengths over the merits of a third run and found themselves at the same end, the latter perishing run out for 30 (53 balls). The declaration soon followed.

Warwickshire reached 27 without loss at tea at which they faced the tempting challenge of scoring 361 from 36 overs in the last session. They resisted the temptation.

Jayden Seales pinned Alex Davies lbw with the first ball of the evening session and Carson bowled Hamza Shaikh with a beauty for the second time in the match. Thereafter, Yates and Sam Hain saw out time as the match petered out in a similar way to Sussex’s first ever championship visit to Edgbaston in 1905 (the famous match in which Bradford-born left-arm spinner Albert Cordingley made his 15th and last appearance for Sussex).

Farbrace said: "It was a very good performance. The one thing we have talked a lot about is that we want to go into the fourth day of championship games with a chance of winning the game and we had that chance today. We said we would bat normally until lunchtime and then reassess, but we had a little period where it got harder to score and in the end we decided 15 points from the first game is a good return.

"If you look at Division 1 you will get more draws. When you are in Division 2 you can look more at trying to set games up but when you've also got relegation to think about you know that if you can take 15 points from a game consistently you are going to put yourself in a really good position.

"It was a good, solid draw with a lot of good individual performance. John Simpson batted brilliantly, Tom Clark was exceptional in the first innings, Colesy has looked good in both innings and it was great to see Tom Alsop get runs in the second. With the ball, Carson was brilliant throughout and Seales got better as the game went on and Oliver bowled an excellent spell on the third morning."