Micheal Bevan is relishing the opportunity to relaunch his Sussex career on the best stage of all.

Bevan makes his first appearance at Lord's since helping Australia win last year's World Cup when the county play Middlesex in the Benson and Hedges Cup today (10.45am).

It's his first match since returning to Sussex this week to start a three-year contract.

"Lord's is the home of cricket and I look forward to playing there every time," said Bevan.

"It's a special place and hopefully I can start well, but the most important thing is that we get a victory."

Tuesday's 35-run defeat by Surrey has left Sussex needing to win at least two of their remaining three group games to have any chance of reaching the quarter-finals.

The county were bowled out for a paltry 97 - their lowest total in the competition for 22 years - and skipper Chris Adams is expecting a big improvement.

And he's also hoping the return of Bevan will help lift spirits among the squad.

"Bev's already had an impact. We had a meeting after the Surrey game and he made some very useful observations. He has been around a very successful Australian side for a long time and hopefully he can pass on some of those habits to us.

"We were very disappointing on Tuesday. The buzz we'd built up during pre-season just wasn't there. But we have got some good players and one swallow doesn't make a summer, we're looking to bounce back today."

Bevan replaces Bas Zuiderent as the only change from Tuesday.

Wicketkeeper Shaun Humphries sees a specialist today about the badly jarred thumb which suffered in the warm-up game against Durham a fortnight ago.

He said: "I had an x-ray which didn't reveal any break, but it is still painful so we'll have to wait and see what the specialist says."

Middlesex include Robin Weston, their new signing from Derbyshire, but there is no place for former Sussex paceman Alex Edwards.

Sussex (probable): Montgomerie, House, Adams (capt), Bevan, Cottey, Martin-Jenkins, Rashid, Wilton, Kirtley, Lewry, Robinson.

Middlesex (from): Strauss, Ramprakash, Shah, Langer (capt), Weston, Weekes, Nash, Johnson, Cook, Fraser, Bloomfield, Tufnell, Roseberry.

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