The most destructive batsman in county cricket heads for Hove tomorrow.

But Sussex skipper Chris Adams would be quite happy if all he had to worry about was keeping Alistair Brown quiet in the quarter-final of the C&G Trophy.

Brown made a world record one-day score of 268 in Surrey's third round win over Glamorgan at The Oval last month and Sussex supporters would settle for seeing him tee-off again providing it was their side who reached the last four for the first time in five years.

The chances of Brown repeating those Oval heroics are pretty slim. That day the pitch was pancake-flat and Brown only needed to hit the ball 60 yards or so to clear the boundary on the gas-holder side. He did it 12 times as well as crashing 30 fours in an innings which spanned 160 balls.

The wicket being used for the televised game tomorrow has only dried out in the last few days after nearly two inches of rain fell on the County Ground in the previous fortnight. If Brown makes 268 tomorrow he'll probably have scored enough runs to beat Sussex on his own.

What the crowd would dearly like to see is a showdown between Adams and Brown, still two of the finest one-day players in the country even though neither will see 30 again.

Their records are remarkably similar. Brown has played ten more one-day games than Adams' 267, but the Sussex captain has scored 8,414 runs compared to Brown's 8,169 and has a much better average, 39.68, compared to 32.28.

Both have made 16 limited overs hundreds and Adams has 53 fifties to his credit, three more than the Surrey man.

Of course the sort of havoc Brown wreaked last month wasn't a one-off. The 203 he took off the Hampshire attack at Guildford in 1997 remains a record for the Sunday League in its various guises. Not far behind is the 163 Adams made against Middlesex at Arundel.

Was it really three years ago that Adams shattered the arborial calm of the Castle Ground to produce his best-ever one-day batting?

He has a different role to play now, but Adams clearly hankers after the days when he could walk to the wicket knowing he had licence to go for his shots straightaway.

"The pressures on me are far greater than they are on Ali," said Adams.

"He's kind of a free spirit who has licence in the side to play like that because he knows there are a lot of talented players around him who can also contribute.

"I'm not knocking our guys when I say that, but the responsibility for us lies with Richard Montgomerie, Murray Goodwin and myself. If you like, the free spirits in our side now are Tim Ambrose, Matt Prior and even Robin Martin-Jenkins.

"When I first came to Sussex I maintained that I would play the same way I did in one-day cricket for Derby when I opened and scored a lot of one-day runs.

"I smashed it about and we won quite a few games, but I have accepted that it's not all about me now. It's about taking responsibility down the order and adopting a more mature role.

"It can be frustrating because I think I'm at my best when I have the freedom to attack the bowling. Perhaps one day when I'm not captain and saddled with the extra responsibility I can finish my career playing like that again."

Adams and Brown's records in limited overs cricket compare favourably with just about any current English player. Yet Brown has only played 16 ODIs and Adams five. He clearly regrets there weren't a few more big international occasions.

"We're both capable of taking that responsibility because we know there would be guys like Graham Thorpe, Alec Stewart and even Nasser Hussain to come in after us," he added.

Brown says he is in "the form of his life" as he heads for the south coast. The worrying thing for Sussex is that he generally does well at Hove. Last year at the same stage of the Benson and Hedges Cup Brown carried his bat for 108 in Surrey's 53 runs victory and he made 97 earlier this season in the same competition.

That day though Sussex squeezed home having lost fewer wickets with the scores tied.

Adams said: "This is our fifth quarter-final and winning would be a huge psychological breakthrough for us."

Sussex (from): Montgomerie, Ambrose, Adams, Goodwin, House, Martin-Jenkins, Prior, Innes, Cottey, Davis, Yardy, Robinson, Taylor.