It goes wrong for county as Sussex hit big target
OPENER Ali Orr made a career-best 141 as Sussex pulled off a remarkable run chase against Derbyshire to claim their first win since April 2021 in the LV Insurance County Championship.
Orr was superbly supported by Tom Alsop and Mohammad Rizwan, who made 55 and 76 not out respectively, as Sussex chased down a target of 342 in 76 overs to win by five wickets with 17 balls to spare at Hove.
Orr was caught on the mid-wicket boundary when Sussex still needed 68, but Rizwan – making his last appearance for the county before returning to international duty with Pakistan – saw them home in relative comfort.
Having had a first-innings lead of 214 just before tea on the third day Derbyshire will wonder how they lost the game.
But after electing not to enforce the follow-on they surrendered seven wickets in adding 127 to their lead on the third day.
They could have batted Sussex out of the game by adding runs in the morning session of the last day after 14 overs were lost to rain and the start delayed until 12.15pm.
The declaration without doing so made for a more meaningful day’s cricket than, for example, at Trent Bridge, where Nottinghamshire had enforced a follow on and Middlesex batted untroubled through the last day to draw with the entire Notts team having a bowl.
And had Sussex lost more wickets in going for the runs, Derbyshire’s could have turned into an inspired decision.
It did not, on a pitch which did not break up or misbehave.
But that should not take away from Sussex’s achievement and, in particular, the performance of lefthander Orr, who hit 15 fours and six sixes as he punished the bowlers every time they erred in line or length. It was an outstanding innings by the 21-year-old.
After skipper Tom Haines was lbw to the fourth ball from off-spinner Alex Thomson, having put on 47 for the first wicket, Orr and Alsop ticked along comfortably through the afternoon session and were always up with the asking rate of 4.5 runs an over.
They crucially picked up the tempo in some style in the four overs before tea by plundering 45 runs, Orr taking 17 off an over from Sam Conners before Alsop hit two sixes and two fours in striking Thomson for 20.
They added 140 in 36 overs, Alsop contributing 55, including six fours and two sixes, before he miscued a drive to mid-off off Anuj Dal shortly after tea.
But Rizwan immediately got into one-day mode as he picked up the tempo and the Derbyshire attack struggled to defend the short boundary on the scoreboard side.
They weren’t helped, either, by no fewer than six ball changes.
Although Rizwan was hampered by what looked like a hamstring injury shortly after reaching his fifty, he always had the chase under control, even when Orr departed to a standing ovation after he was caught by Hayden Kerr on the midwicket boundary off Luis Reece, having faced 203 balls and batted for a shade under four hours.
Cameos from Delray Rawlins and Ollie Carter made sure Sussex did not lose their way and Rizwan was unbeaten on 76 from 80 balls, with a six and nine fours, when Dan Ibrahim hit the winning boundary and Sussex could celebrate.
“One bad session can cost you dearly in first-class cricket and that’s what happened,” said Derbyshire head of cricket Mickey Arthur.
“The late session batting on the third day was disappointing, although I still believe you have to risk losing to produce cricketers and create a good culture.
“I can’t fault our effort, coming off the amount of cricket we’ve played, which has been fantastic, but for one poor session yesterday.
“It wasn’t in our minds to enforce the follow on.
“A couple of bowlers had niggles so we didn’t want to push them back out there but if we’d had one good session of batting it would have put us in a really good position.
“Having said all that, Ali Orr batted really well for Sussex.”