SOMERSET’S return journey from Hove will have felt a lot shorter after their LV County Championship match with Sussex ended in a draw from which they take 13 points, compared to the hosts 11.

With one round of matches left to play this result sees Somerset climb into sixth place with 159 points, Sussex are seventh with 157, Hampshire, who today lost to Yorkshire, are eighth with 141 while Worcestershire remain bottom with 127 after losing to Durham.

The Somerset captain began the morning unbeaten on 53 and batted through three sessions at the end of which he had moved onto 210 which he scored off 272 balls with 26 fours and one six.

For the last 36.5 overs of the game Marcus was batting with Pete Trego and together they added 176 runs, of which the all rounder made 100 not out off 128 deliveries with 13 fours and two 6s, before Somerset reached 438 for four declared and the players shook hands.

Afterwards Marcus said: “With all of the rain around to come out of this game with maximum points and limiting Sussex to only one batting point is a pretty good effort.

“This result was crucial to us and gives a little bit of leeway putting us two points ahead of Sussex now, and going into the last match of the season every point is massive as we know.

“With Hampshire losing today it means that they need to win and get full bonus points and we only get six for them to get above us.

“We have done part of the job but there is still a big job to be done next week.”

Talking about his own innings Marcus said: “I was delighted the way it went for me today and really enjoyed batting, it was good fun and I felt really driven to get us up to the 400 we needed for maximum batting points, and keep the wickets down as well.

“It’s always nice to have a strong focus when you come out on top like we did today.”

How did the captain feel ahead of the start of the final day’s play?

“We knew it was a good pitch but to be able to go through the whole day and only lose the two wickets was a pretty good achievement. We have seen it at Taunton several times, so it was pretty good to be on the other side of it today.

“Now we have got a couple of days off then a couple of days of practice before the last game of the season when there is still a big a job to be done.”

The skipper added: “Hopefully after the end of next week we can hopefully sit back and relax!”