In the absence of James Kirtley and Paul Hutchison for the next few weeks, Sussex are relying on Robin Martin-Jenkins to carry the attack to opposition batsmen.

On the evidence of the rain-affected draw with Hampshire it looks as if the burden of responsibility will rest easily on Martin-Jenkins' shoulders.

Sussex's all-rounder followed up his unbeaten 80 with the bat by claiming his second five-wicket haul of the season before the match at the Rose Bowl petered out into a predictable draw on Saturday.

Using his height to get the most out of an uneven pitch, Martin-Jenkins took his tally of Championship wickets to 25 by claiming two of the last four to fall on Saturday and finish with 5-37.

He already has more Championship scalps than the whole of last season when he was ruled out for two months with a side strain.

Clearly the work he spent beefing up his slender frame during the winter has paid off and he is also relishing the responsibility of bowling with the new ball, having taken 13 of those wickets in the three games since he has been opening the attack.

With 420 runs at an average of 38.01 as well, he must be targeting the all-rounder's double of 50 wickets and 1,000 runs in a season.

Reaching those goals would probably get him into the England Academy next winter.

When Martin-Jenkins had Giles White lbw with the second ball on Saturday it looked as if Sussex might be able to force an unlikely victory but Hampshire's last three wickets put on 75 to restrict Sussex's first innings lead to 83 and there simply were not enough overs left for Chris Adams to play with.

Instead batsmen on both sides spent the rest of the day trying to combat an awful pitch where balls were either shooting through at ankle height or taking off to be clutched above their heads by the wicketkeepers.

Had nearly two days not been lost to rain it is unlikely the game would have lasted into a third day and Sussex, whose bowlers bent their backs and got much more out of the pitch, would probably have won.

Instead they batted until 4.50pm before setting Hampshire a notional 195 to win in 24 overs.

Fortunately for everyone concerned, proceedings were called off after 12 overs.

Sussex took eight points from the match to remain fifth in the table while Hampshire managed seven to remain ahead of Kent in third place.

SCORES: Sussex 246 (Martin-Jenkins 80 no, Udal 5-56) and 111-4 dec, Hampshire 163 (Martin-Jenkins 5-37) and 56-0. Match drawn: Hampshire 7pts, Sussex 8pts.