By Jon Steer
July 20 2004

Once Jon Lewis lost the toss it was always going to be a tough game to win but after a run of good results in the Totesport league the size of the loss was disappointing. Matt Prior and Chris Adams found the Durham bowling relatively easy to live with, scoring 119 and 81 respectively. It was the Sussex keeper's first century in limited overs cricket. Sussez reached 261 from their 45 overs with the loss of just 4 wickets.

Shoaib had a very poor day with the ball, Onions did reasonably well and is looking like a good prospect for the future, Neil Killeen yet again gave a very good performance and was the only bowler to really cause problems.

Durham's batting was also well below par - only Gary Pratt managed to stand up to the Sussex attack, seeing out the overs and finishing with 58. Gordon Muchall was the only other batsmen to show some resilience but as too often before was not quite good enough.

With the Twenty20 competition starting tomorrow, the shorter versions of the game will be under the potlight for most of this month. In the Totesport league we play Leicestershire and Yorkshire within the next fortnight, matches in which wins will gove us a great chance of promotion.

To me, the Twenty20 competition is still very much a lottery and I think we have as much chance as a lot of other teams to progress...