Went to this game. Big crowd (sold out) in a small ground. The Essex win was a pleasant surprise, and was largely down to an excellent bowling display in defence of a merely OK-ish total. Ravi batted well, the best I've seen from him for ages. I was able to tick off one item from my cricket-watching wishlist, which was to see Mohammed Amir bowling for Essex - he was properly quick and very impressive despite the odd wild delivery. I've been pretty sceptical about Zampa as a signing but in this match at least he bowled well, including one superb over near the death which might have sealed the match. In fact this might be the first time that having both him and Harmer in the side has worked in Essex's favour. Meanwhile Wheater again looked a liability behind the stumps. For Sussex, Wiese biffed an energetic 60-odd but nobody else stuck around very long. I was curious to see Alex Carey after his World Cup exploits but he holed out for 3. Disappointed not to see Tymal Mills but Reece Topley bowled well, better than his figures suggest. The most economical bowler was the Sussex spinner Will Beer (who is quite short; I wonder if they call him Small Beer?).
Partway through the Essex innings the close-of-play score from Headinglely was read out over the tannoy, along with Archer's bowling figures drawing a big cheer from the Sussex crowd. That was before the 67 all out, of course.
Hove is actually the only place I've been to T20s so I don't know how things compare to other venues, but the gimmickry just keeps proliferating: aside from the expected blasts of music they have a big screen on which they show such marvels as a Kiss Cam (people kissing in the crowd), a Food Cam (people eating in the crowd), and sundry other Cams (people dancing and/or mugging for the camera). (They do also show high-quality replays and info on players, tbf). Also a 'Vitality Scatterblast!' (people run on and throw free Vitality t-shirts into the crowd). And so on. I could certainly live without it all but it has to be acknowledged that a lot of people, right across the age range, seemed to be enjoying all this.
