County pay for second-innings collapse
SUSSEX overcame stubborn Gloucestershire resistance to squeeze home by four wickets of the final day of their Vitality County Championship second division game at Hove.
Chasing 144 to win in 49 overs, they still needed 29 when left-arm spinner Zafar Gohar picked up his fifth wicket but the nerveless Cheteshwar Pujara guided Sussex to victory with an unbeaten 44.
Gloucestershire head coach Mark Alleyne said, “We lost the game despite playing some really good stuff.
We got punished for a sloppy 15 overs in the first part of our second innings. It was probably the only part of the game we got wrong, but it’s ended up costing us the game.
“The fight today was excellent, but it exaggerated how bad that hour was for us on the third day. Miles Hammond and Zafar Gohar both had really good games.
“We bowled well as a unit. Maybe we could be a bit more threatening by bowling a fuller length and asking the batters more questions.
“I was pleased with the variety of our attack and Zafar gave us a specialist option. His analysis in the second innings speaks for itself but there was more to it than that.
“His dedication to his task and his application was exemplary and all at very important times - he gave us the chance to win the game in the second innings by causing havoc with their left-handers at the top of the order.”
Miles Hammond (77) and Gohar (52) had given Gloucestershire hope with a seventh-wicket stand of 87, batting through the morning session to lodge their second half-centuries of the match.
Hammond became one of two victims in three balls for off-spinner Jack Carson and Jayden Seales finished the innings with wickets from successive deliveries as Gloucestershire were dismissed for 205.
Sussex attacked the chase vigorously but Zafar stymied their progress by exploiting some turn to remove all three left-handers in Sussex’s top three.
He had Tom Clark caught at short-leg off bat and pad in his second over and in his next the Pakistani had Tom Alsop lbw on the back foot.
Tom Haines was beaten in the flight and stumped and in the last over before tea James Coles was well taken low down at second slip by Ben Charlesworth.
Pujara and John Simpson added 42 before Gloucestershire took wickets in successive overs. Simpson dragged a short ball off Dom Goodman to midwicket and Fynn Hudson-prentice became Zafar’s fifth victim.
Pujara and Danny Lamb saw Sussex home as Gloucestershire went down fighting, but were left to regret their collapse during the final session on day three when they slumped to 79-6.
Hammond and Zafar looked fairly comfortable before lunch as 74 runs were added by the eighth-wicket pair.
Simpson opted to give Jack Carson the new ball and the off-spinner broke through. Hammond had faced 204 balls for his 77 but Carson got one to straighten just enough to beat a defensive push. Goodman was then deceived by a quicker delivery and bagged a pair.
Zaman Akhter and Gohar added a useful 39 for the ninth wicket before Seales wrapped up the innings with his first two deliveries as Zafar, who had resisted for nearly three hours for his 52, drove a slower ball to extra cover and last man Ajeet Singh Dale fenced to third slip, setting up the victory target of 144.