I didn't know that, thanks for the update. Their tail is biggish so a couple of early wickets would be ideal.

Should have had a few overs with a new ball and then in the morning, it's still new.

I doubt they will declare until they have put us out of the game. The pitch has done nothing and if they got a lead of 250 at lunch, I don't think the pitch will have anything more in it to give their bowlers a chance.

With all the umpires we have in this country, I am not sure I agree with umpires who played for one of the counties in the game they are umpiring. I am not accusing anyone of being biased but surely that must take that out of the equation if either umpire hasn't played for any of the 2 counties.

I think if we had batted on, we could have been 430+ ahead easily and still had about 15 overs at them tonight. It looks a flat pitch anyway so maybe the draw might be the result that was most expected either way.

Looking flat, both the pitch and the bowling.

We have enough bowlers that any one of them shouldn't get over-bowled. If we had only 4, they would be in a situation where they might have to bowl 20 in a day but short spells between 6 front line seamers, should be fine. Obviously if there is a big partnership, they will be frustrated and look weary but we have enough to force a win here.

4-43 at the end there, lovely perseverance from our lads.

I am claiming the wicket of Clarke, the 8th to go in the 90's. I predicted it, I am the Soothsayer and King of the day.

Come on, let's get Clarke out soon. 7 batsmen in this round of matches, have been out in the 90's.

Well, what the hell do I know. Let me see now, "Oh no, I thought I was going to win the lottery tonight but alas...".

I was hoping with the way we batted in the first 30 minutes, that we might be able to get to 450 within the 110 overs but hey, this is superb compared to 179-6.

We would have probably settled for that at the start with hopefully a chance to get to 400 tomorrow.

Hold the presses, JB has got a game.

Hain does appear over the last 4 years, to have got some awful decisions, usually caught behind when he hasn't got near the ball. We need everyone to 'Chip In' here and get a good score going otherwise if conditions are good for batting, we could be facing a big deficit unless the bowlers do us another favour.

Not having Barker in the side is a surprise unless he is feeling jaded. Also surprised to see Tongue not taking the new ball but that does appear to be a thing with some counties, not giving a Test player first use of the ball.

Even if it is our neighbours, it's good he gets some cricket as he might not get very much with our current crop of seamers. He is a very decent bloke, I have spoken to him a few times most notably after the Royal London Cup Final where he signed my ticket and spoke at length whilst we waited for our coaches because we had stuffed Surrey by 3.50pm. He is very polite, decent and listens to what people say and he is a real contender for a PR job in cricket as his way with people is quite obvious. I wish him luck even if it is with the Pears.

A lot of people on here, me very much so, mentioned the need to have some variation, that variation was Barker and he did make a difference in the end, bowling well in both innings and he does bat as well. We do though, need to maybe get a spinner in. I am not a fan of part-time spin as it never really makes a big difference apart from changing things up for the sake of it. This is England's dilemma, playing Jacks in the Ashes series whilst Leach sat at home scratching his head. Jacks will never bowl out a side in the CC so why do England think he will do something at Test level. For this reason we need a proper front-line spinner and if people say it will weaken the batting, tough, we have enough batting there to make big enough scores, we shouldn't feel the need to carry the batsmen by filling the team full of allrounders.

Brilliant from the bowlers and Barker's spell this morning, like turning the clock back to 2012 (WTF, 14 years ago) and the little cricketer in my head is saying, "That bloody Sussex game, if only....". Can we please have pitches like this for the rest of the season, even though there were some awful shots and the overheads also played their part.

Flippin' 'eck.