Twenty-two wickets on day two against Gloucestershire, five of them for David Wiese

David Wiese recorded the best figures of his Sussex career by taking 5-48 on a astounding second day of this Specsavers County Championship match in which 22 wickets fell in total.

Sussex finished the day on 51-2 in their second innings, leading Gloucestershire by 13 runs.

Resuming on 92-0 at the start of the day, Sussex were bowled out for 145, losing all 10 wickets for 59 runs in 26 overs before lunch. Gloucestershire seamer Ryan Higgins took a career-best five for 21 with Luke Wright Sussex’s top scorer in the session with 13.

There was some encouragement from the lively pitch, and the overcast conditions provided the bowlers with a fair amount of swing, but a number of batsmen would probably admit that they could have played better.

Luke Wells had added two runs to his overnight 25 when he was caught behind playing forward to Higgins.  In the same bowler’s next over Phil Salt,  54 not out overnight was caught at long leg for 63.

The wickets continued to tumble. Stiaan van Zyl was caught in the gully off Higgins, Harry Finch was caught behind off Daniel Worrall and captain Ben Brown was lbw to Worrall to leave the home side 105-5. 

Michael Burgess and Ollie Robinson were caught in the slips from successive deliveries with the score on at 116, both off Higgins, and it was 117-8 when Wiese lost his leg stump to a scintillating inswinger from Matt Taylor.

Briggs and Wright put on something of a partnership for the final wicket, but when Wright was caught at mid-off, Gloucestershire still had time to face one over before lunch.

In a similar fashion to the way Salt and Wells had done for Sussex on day one, Gloucestershire profited against the new ball.

Chris Dent dragged on a delivery from Robinson in the fifth over, but Benny Howell and Gareth Roderick scored quickly so that the visitors reached 69-1 in the 14th over.

Then the wickets began to tumble once more. A vigorous innings from Howell came to an end when he was lbw to one that moved into him from David Wiese.

Robinson struck again when he bowled James Bracey for 15 and it was 102-4 when Robinson took his third wicket, having Gareth Roderick LBW for 23.

At tea Gloucestershire were still well placed at 104-4, but Jack Taylor, taking his eye off the ball as he attempted to hook Robinson, was caught at long leg to make it 107-5.

Higgins was next to go, bowled by Wiese. Then Graeme van Buuren was caught behind by Ben Brown to give Wiese his third wicket.

Three balls later from Wiese and Danny Briggs pulled off a heroic catch at mid-wicket to get rid of Craig Miles.

Sussex’s South African seamer bagged the eighth first-class five-wicket haul of his career and his first with six martlets on his chest Dan Worrall was well-caught by a diving Harry Finch at second slip. That left Gloucestershire nine down and just five runs ahead.

Some firm blows from Kieran Noema-Barnett (31), however, gave the boys from Bristol a lead of 38 when the innings was ended by Danny Briggs’ first delivery of the season.

That left 16 overs for Sussex to face. Salt was bowled for nought in the second over, before Wells also had his stumps disturbed with what turned out to be the final ball of the day from Noema-Barnett. Stiaan van Zyl finished unbeaten on 23.

Speaking at the close, which didn’t come until almost 7.30pm, Wiese gave his assessment of a frenetic day: “I’ve not been in a side that’s been bowled out in a session before. We certainly weren’t expecting that.  It’s a one innings game now.

“The ball did more the older it got and the ball nibbled around a bit. As a batsman you feel in until one suddenly gets you. It was a strange day. We bowled better after tea. For them, Ryan Higgins put in a decent spell.”