Sussex vs Glamorgan | Day Three

Sussex moved to the top of the First Division of the Rothesay County Championship with their fourth victory in seven matches when they beat Glamorgan by an Innings and 98 runs inside three days at Hove.

 Tom Haines, captain in the absence of England’s Ollie Robinson, led the way with three wickets for five runs with his tight medium pace but there were also three for James Coles and two for Dom Goodman on debut after England’s call-up of Henry Crocombe during the match. 

Determined Glamorgan batting frustrated the Sussex bowlers for much of the day but the visiting side lost two wickets just before lunch and three more shortly after tea which sealed their fate. 

Glamorgan resumed on 42 without loss, still 324 runs behind, but perhaps inspired by memories of their second innings score of 737 to save the match here three years ago after trailing by 358 on the first innings.

Openers Zain-ul-Hassan and Asa Tribe batted with great doggedness against a wide variety of Sussex bowlers.

Tribe reached fifty from 98 deliveries when he worked Jack Carson through midwicket for his sixth four. The hundred came up in the 35th over and ul-Hassan had scored just 25 at that stage.

Ten minutes before lunch Haines chucked the ball to spinner James Coles. Haines might have been thinking of improving his side’s -4 over-rate at the time.

But the move worked. With only his second ball Coles dismissed ul-Hassan, who clipped the ball firmly off his toes only to see Tom Alsop, at short-leg, pull off a fine reflex catch.

Three overs later, the last before lunch, Glamorgan lost their second wicket when Tribe was bowled by Carson. The ball spun sharply but Tribe should have played forward.

That last over before the break was something of a surprise. New batsman Kiran Carlson, the Glamorgan captain, had done some ostentatious gardening in the previous over and the clock appeared to be showing 1pm when the umpires allowed another over -possibly because of the time-wasting that had gone on.

From the fourth delivery of that last over before lunch Carlson had also taken a sharp single when the Sussex fielders thought the ball was dead. 

The ball had been fielded by Alsop and thrown to bowler Carson. Carson allowed the ball to hit him and run away a few feet while he rubbed his hand in the dirt to get more grip. 

The umpires allowed the single. But Tribe appeared to have mentally checked out for the interval when he played his false stroke. He had batted almost three hours for his 126-ball 64.

In an attritional afternoon session Glamorgan scored 92 runs for the loss of one wicket. While Carlson dug in Ben Kellaway, who had played an impressive cameo in the first innings, looked even better, hitting seven fours in his 55 before, half-forward, he was lbw to one that moved in from Haines. 

At 212-3 at tea, Glamorgan could have felt proud of their rearguard action. But then the Sussex fought back.

From the last ball of the first over after the break Colin Ingram edged Haines to Alsop at first slip for a pair. Two overs later Carlson was run out for 32 by Dom Goodman at square-leg, slipping after bing sent back by Sean Dickson.

And it was three wickets in four overs when Dickson, playing at a wide delivery from Haines, was caught by Jack Leaning at second slip.

A stand of 42 for the seventh wicket  was ended when Chris Cooke, who had been caught off a no-ball and dropped at slip, was lbw to Coles.

Goodman took his first wickets for Sussex when he had Tom van der Gugten and Tom Norton caught behind in the same over before Coles finished the game by bowling last man Ryan Hadley.