DAY 1

Worcestershire suffered a tough first day in their LV= County Championship match against Sussex at Hove when they were bowled out for 162 in their first innings and Sussex, in reply, were 22-0 at stumps.

The toss took place at 10.45am, with Sussex winning the toss and electing to put Worcestershire into bat, but persistent showers meant that play could not get underway until 2:15pm.

Worcestershire, who made one change from the team that defeated Lancashire as Jack Shantry replaced Shaaiq Choudhry, didn't get off to a good start when Phil Hughes was caught by Michael Yardy at second slip off Steve Magoffin for 11, with the score on 16 in the 7th over, and then Magoffin soon took his second wicket, two runs later, when he bowled Vikram Solanki for 1.

Captain Daryl Mitchell was the third wicket to fall when he edged to Ed Joyce in the slips off Amjad Khan for 8, with the score on 32-3, but Moeen Ali and James Cameron survived the rest of the afternoon session as they took the score to 68-3 at tea off 28 overs.

When play resumed, Cameron was bowled by James Anyon for 11 in the first over after tea and then, soon afterwards, Matt Pardoe edged to Yardy in the slips off Anyon for 4, with the score on 74-5 in the 30th over.  Worcestershire then lost two more wickets as Gareth Andrew was caught behind by Ben Brown for 11 and Ben Scott was caught by Anyon at mid-on for 0 to leave the visitors on 107-7 in the 39th over.

Ali was the eighth wicket to fall on 122 when, pulling a short ball off Magoffin, he was caught by Luke Wright at mid-wicket for 43 and although Richard Jones (30*) frustrated the Sussex bowlers for a while Worcestershire were all out for 163 as Jack Shantry was caught behind by Brown off Khan for 10 and Alan Richardson was bowled by Monty Panesar for 4.

Sussex then had to bat for seven overs and at the close had reached 22-0.

Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes spoke to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Dave Bradley after the first day at Hove;

To listen to the interview please click here

DAY 2

Worcestershire had a long day out on the field as Sussex were 325-7 at the close of play at Hove, leading by 163 runs.

Resuming on 22-0 Sussex lost two early wickets thanks to Alan Richardson who bowled Chris Nash for 18 and got Luke Wells to edge to Daryl Mitchell in the slips for 4, with the score on 36-2.  Murray Goodwin, who earlier had to retire as he was hit on the gloves by Jack Shantry, was trapped lbw by Richard Jones for 9, with the score on 65-3.

Then Ed Joyce and Michael Yardy added 61 for the fourth wicket until Yardy became Richardson’s third victim when he was caught behind by Ben Scott for 33 but Joyce continued to push on and he eventually got to his hundred off 217 balls, with 12 fours.  Along with Luke Wright they put on 123 for the fifth wicket until Joyce was lbw to Richardson for 107 off 260 balls, with the score on 249-5, and then four overs later, Wright edged to Mitchell in the slips off Gareth Andrew for 78 off 132 balls, with 8 fours and 1 six, with the score on 275-6.

Ben Brown scored 28 before he was caught, just before the close of play, by Vikram Solanki off Moeen Ali but at stumps Sussex closed on 325-7, with Steve Magoffin unbeaten on 29 and James Anyon unbeaten on 4.

DAY 3

Worcestershire were soundly beaten by Sussex at Hove by an innings and 117 runs inside three days.

Due to rain play didn’t begin until 1.10pm and when play got underway, Sussex, resuming on 325-7, added 35 runs until Steve Magoffin was bowled by Alan Richardson for 41.  Frustratingly for Worcestershire Sussex piled on the runs as James Anyon scored 56 off 60 balls, with 8 fours, and aided by 27 from Amjad Khan the home side declared on 420-8 off 121 overs, with Richardson taking 5-90 off 37 overs and the other Worcestershire wicket-takers were Moeen Ali (1-33 off 12 overs), Richard Jones (1-84 off 16 overs) and Gareth Andrew (1-130 off 35 overs).

Worcestershire were 258 runs behind when they began their second innings and in the 5th over they lost their first wicket when Phil Hughes (9) gloved a short delivery from Anyon to the keeper Ben Brown and 3 overs later Vikram Solanki (2) was bowled by Magoffin, with the score on 32-2 after 8 overs.  At tea the visitors were 59-2 off 17 overs but after tea Daryl Mitchell and Ali's third wicket partnership of 55 was broken when Ali, who was earlier dropped by Michael Yardy, was caught by Yardy in the slips off Magoffin for 27.

James Cameron had to retire when he was struck on the head by a Magoffin bouncer and then from 118-3 Worcestershire lost six wickets for 23 runs as Matt Pardoe (14) was caught by Yardy in the slips off Monty Panesar, who then bowled both Andrew (0) and Mitchell, who made a stubborn 48 off 142 balls, with the score on 129-6.  Then Jones was trapped lbw by Khan for 1, Ben Scott was caught by the substitute fielder, Andrew Hodd, at silly point off Panesar for 6 and when Jack Shantry was caught by Luke Wells in the slips off Khan for 8 Worcestershire were all out for 141 off 62.3 overs, with Cameron unable to resume his innings, as they fell to an innings defeat.

Worcestershire's director of cricket Steve Rhodes spoke to BBC Hereford & Worcester's Dave Bradley after their innings defeat at Hove;

To listen to the interview please click here