After ending day two with a slender 43-run lead, Worcestershire batter Rob Jones is insistent his side are still in the hunt for victory despite losing six wickets across the second half of the day.
Sussex added 122 to their overnight score, led by John Simpson’s unbeaten 129, before the hosts bowled their opponents out for 350 in the end.
Jones, was pleased with how his side started the day, firstly by mopping up the tail, followed by Jake Libby and Rehaan Edavalath’s impressive century opening partnership.
“It was tough yesterday and just to come out and show the bit of character this morning, I think that’s what we spoke about in the huddle, just to try and get those wickets as early as we could was key.
“It is obviously quite quick scoring, just with the nature of the boundaries being quite small.
“With the bat, I think Rehaan played beautifully, obviously Duff (Roderick) at the end there was brilliant, which was great, and Dan’s just continuing to show his great intent going forward. So that was good.
“It definitely flattened out a little bit. I think there’s still a lot of good balls in there. It’s quite dented now, so if you land it in the right area, it feels like it does a bit.”
Jones, who featured heavily during Worcestershire’s One Day Cup campaign, has enjoyed a profitable year with the bat when the opportunity has arisen in red-ball cricket.
After coming within four-runs of his second Rothesay County Championship half-century during his sides second innings reply against Sussex during day two, Jones was trapped LBW midway through the second half of day two, ending a defiant knock of 46 that had helped his side gain a foothold in the match.
Having struggled for regular opportunities in the Worcestershire side, Jones says he has been enjoying his time in the middle whenever the chance has arisen, after an impressive summer in the Rapids white-ball set-up.
“I haven’t had many opportunities to be honest, I’ve played all my games at New road, and we know how tough it’s been this year.
“So actually I have felt great all year, scores haven’t been there, but I felt great.
“I’ve had a lot of runs in the twos so can’t get too disheartened. It’s just opportunities and today, I just thought I’d scrap as much as I can and try my best to get to a score, whatever that looked like. I’ll never give up, and I’ll never stop trying.
“It can happen real quick and when we said that there’s a game to a win here.
“Even though it’s last game of the year, there’s still a first-class cricket game to win here so hopefully we can give it our best and give it a good crack.”
