Joyce and Cachopa bat Sussex to comfortable victory

Sussex cruised to a seven-wicket victory in their final home game of the season to secure their status in Division One of the County Championship as they successfully chased 251 to defeat relegation candidates Lancashire.

Ed Joyce (79) and Craig Cochpa (78*) shared a partnership worth 105 runs for the third-wicket as Sussex blasted their way towards victory in the final session of the match, although their victory proved comfortable with nearly 13 overs left to play.

Cochopa reached his second half-century of the match, his fifth in his first six innings for Sussex, and hit nine fours and three sixes to ensure Sussex would pick up their fifth win of the season alongside Luke Wright (15*), who hit the winning runs.

Lancashire were bowled out for 364 in their second innings after Steven Croft (87) and Jos Buttler (33) had boosted the visitors lead to 250, but the loss of five wickets for 59 runs limited their ability to set Sussex a mammoth total.

Joyce’s 79 came off the back of his sixth century of the Championship campaign and shared another significant stand with Chris Nash (57) worth 76 runs after the pair batted together brilliantly in Sussex’s first innings.

The final day began with Lancashire leading by the slim margin of 89 runs and overnight batsmen Croft and Buttler showed clear intent early on, the latter smashing Ashar Zaidi for sixes in successive overs before the spinner left the field with a finger injury.

After falling one run short of a half-century in Lancashire’s first innings, Croft reached a patient fifty in 140 deliveries and soon joined Buttler’s cause, lofting Chris Nash for six.

Lancashire enjoyed their share of luck as a top-edge from Croft was taken on the boundary by Luke Wright fielding at third man, but the Sussex all-rounder failed to keep inside the rope, rewarding Croft with his second six.

Things seemed to be going well for Lancashire but when Buttler was well caught by Chris Jordan off Lewis Hatchet (2-77) the innings started to be dominated by the bowling side.

Croft soon followed as Jordan and Hatchet swapped roles, the latter this time holding on to a routine catch after Croft mistimed his shot, causing the ball to soar into the sunny sky as Jordan struck with the second delivery of the new ball.

The loss of these two established batsmen lead to reconsideration on Lancashire’s part, knowing that they were not yet in the realms of a declaration. Jordan (4-82) continued to be rampant with the new ball, removing Glen Chapple (2) with the score at 321/7.

Hatchet then struck for a second time when he encouraged an edge off Simon Kerrigan to Michael Yardy, who took a smart catch at second slip to remove the Lancashire tail-ender for no score.

The visitors were now in the midst of a collapse, one which was made all the more difficult to recover from by the injury to Tom Smith, who left the field on 18 not out with a continuation of the back injury he suffered against Yorkshire.

James Anderson (20) and Luke Procter (22) did their best to find late-order runs adding 37 for the ninth-wicket stand before Anderson was bowled by Jordan, forcing Smith to return to the field with a runner.

Procter was the last Lancashire wicket to fall, finding Hatchet on the boundary off Steve Magoffin (2-55) to bring the innings to a close, as the visitors set Sussex 251 to win  on a pitch which offered very little to the bowlers.