Luke Wells takes career best figures but Sussex have to settle for draw

Luke Wells finished with career best figures of 5 for 63 but Marnus Labuschagne's impressive 182 meant Sussex had to settle for a draw against Glamorgan at The 1st Central County Ground.

Labuschagne reeled off his third Championship century since joining Glamorgan at the start of the season as he posted a new county record of 291 for the second wicket with Nick Selman, who was out for 99.

After their departure, wickets fell regularly, with leg-spinner Luke Wells taking his maiden first-class five-wicket haul as the visitors were eventually bowled out for 466 just after tea. That left Sussex 27 overs to score 233 at 8.03 runs an over.

Sussex had nothing to lose but Phil Salt (5), the one batsman who could have given them hope of chasing their unlikely target, was caught trying to accelerate the run-chase when Marchant de Lange dropped short. Wells and Harry Finch took their score to 47 for 1 when the players shook hands on a draw with 14 overs remaining.

Glamorgan had begun the final day on 218 for 1 and Labuschagne and Selman quickly passed Glamorgan’s previous second-wicket record of 252, set by Matt Maynard and David Hemp against Northamptonshire in Cardiff in 2002.

Labuschagne batted for just under five hours until he got a thin under-edge to wicketkeeper Ben Brown to give Wells his first wicket. He hit 31 fours and faced 244 balls.

🧙‍♂️ Spinball Wizard, Luke Wells 🧙‍♂️ pic.twitter.com/JrnYtQuIAc

— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) May 30, 2019

Selman had played the sheet anchor role to perfection but within touching distance of his hundred he was leg before to a full-length delivery just after David Wiese had taken the new ball. Selman, who had carried his bat in Glamorgan’s first innings, batted for 343 minutes, faced 252 balls and hit ten fours.

Sussex claimed two more wickets before lunch. Billy Root (2) edged Mir Hamza to slip and Wiese got some extra bounce and Kieran Carlson (0) was caught behind.

But any hopes they had of ending Glamorgan’s innings quickly disappeared in a flurry of attacking shots from Dan Douthwaite, who struck ten fours in making 63 off 55 balls, the first 50 coming off just 34 deliveries. He lost David Lloyd (17) when Wells returned to the attack and turned one past his bat but Douthwaite had lodged his Championship best when he edged Wells to Brown.

The lead was 182 at that stage but Glamorgan’s last three wickets added a further 50 runs with Tom Cullen finishing unbeaten on 28. Graham Wagg (25) was taken at short fine-leg off a top-edged sweep at Danny Briggs before Wells completed his five-for after tea with Marchant de Lange and Timm van der Gugten both lbw playing back.

🤩 @luke_wells07's last two wickets... he finishes with figures of 5-63! #gosbts pic.twitter.com/XtXzV1N3CO

— Sussex Cricket (@SussexCCC) May 30, 2019

Head coach, Jason Gillespie said: "It's a shame about the weather on day three because we could have had a really good finish. The positives for us were Phil Salt's outstanding first innings batting. He has adapted his game plan and is implementing it well at the moment. He is learning to adapt to different situations and not make the same mistakes. 

"Ben Brown also batted superbly and I thought we did very well to bowl them out for 186 in the first innings but our second-innings bowling was very disappointing. We've got some very experienced bowlers and they know they will need to improve. Every team is in the same boat in terms of playing plenty of cricket at the moment so that's not an excuse, we need to be better at our disciplines if we are going to knock sides over. 

"Some of our first-innings shot selection could have been better so there are still areas to improve but there were positives as well."

Sussex take 13 points and Glamorgan eight.