In their pomp, between 1996 and 2002, Surrey used to make short work of Sussex, but the Oval outfit haven't tasted success against the Martlets in the championship since 2004. Both sides started the season as joint favourites for the Division Two title, but whereas Sussex confirmed their favouritism by beating Glamorgan by 201 runs, Surrey were on the end of a similar hiding at the hands of Derbyshire.

If Chris Nash can make 1,298 championship runs in a season in a struggling side in Division One, heaven only knows how many he is capable of racking up in Division Two this term. Michael Yardy and Murray Goodwin were slightly below par with the bat last term, but against the less testing attacks in Division Two, they too should be forces to be reckoned with. The departures of Hamilton-Brown (to Surrey) and Hopkinson (to retirement), mean that Joe Gatting is likely to be given every chance to establish himself as a middle-order regular.

With the ball, however, only the arrival of Monty Panesar from Northants, peps up Sussex's four-day attack, which continues to look infinitely more attuned to the abbreviated versions of the game. In last week's game at Cardiff all of the bowlers, with the exception of James Anyon, chipped in. The arrival of Rana Naved now gives them a spearhead, though.

Mark Ramprakash's last seven f-c innings against Sussex read: 152, 97, 12, 266*, 123, 178 and 43, but during his 178, the last time he faced up to the Martlets, Ramprakash he got into an animated on field row with Goodwin, which led to the former Middlesex man being slapped with a two-match ban.

Rao Iftikhar Anjum is poised to make his Surrey debut. Mark Ramprakash has 109 first-class hundreds, furthermore, with 27,431, he is closing in on Graham Gooch's record of 27,571 runs in the County Championship. Sussex's Murray Goodwin has 59 f-c career hundreds and Luke Wright starts the match with 2,436 f-c career runs.

No movement on the injury front - Brown, Jordan and Tremlett are still sidelined, but the official line on Michael Brown's complaint has changed from "minor muscular problem" to "arm". More ominously, the Daily Telegraph is saying that Browney is suffering from tennis elbow. Stuart Meaker has been dropped, while Rao Ifthikar Anjum and Chris Schofield have been added to the eleven that lost to Derbyshire to make up the 12-man squad for Hove. Expect Ifthikar to make his debut in county cricket in place of Meaker. Schofield's ability with the bat could see him get the nod in place of Dernbach or Linley.

If Surrey had not been without Rao Iftikhar Anjum and had held on to their catches it would have been interesting to see how the game against Derbyshire would have turned out. Sussex already appear to be the cream in Division Two, but the pitches at Hove have not been kind to bowlers in recent years. All three results are possible, but my gut feeling says that this will end in a hard fought draw.

M Yardy (capt), C Nash, J Gatting, M Goodwin, L Wright, M Thornely, A Hodd (wk), R Martin-Jenkins, R Naved-ul-Hasan, M Panesar and C Collymore.

Mark Benson and Jeff Evans.

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