Glamorgan take upper hand in low-scoring match against Sussex at Cardiff

Glamorgan’s bowlers dismissed Sussex for 203 on day two of their LV= County Championship match at Cardiff, with the home openers then building on their first-innings advantage before stumps.

Australian leg-spinner Mitch Swepson took the final two wickets in two balls to wrap things up, finishing with three for 52, while seamer James Harris returned figures of three for 38 as the Welsh county established a first-innings lead of 39.

The visitors had started the day in a strong position on 65 for one, but lost both not-out batters before a run had been added, with Fynn Hudson-Prentice then holding the innings together in scoring only the second half-century of the match.

When he went for 59, the rest of the Sussex innings folded. Glamorgan openers Zain-ul-Hassan and Andrew Salter went patiently about their task as the home side ended the day on 46 without loss – a lead of 85.

The Australian Kookaburra ball is being used for this match, with Glamorgan’s bowlers using it to good effect to stem the runs for long periods as well as taking regular wickets.

Sussex scored at just over two runs an over as they struggled to evade the fielders with their few attacking shots.

Struggling

It was the 30th ball of the morning before Sussex added to their overnight score, by which time Timm van der Gugten had added his second wicket of the innings by bowling Tom Alsop for 27 while Jamie McIlroy dismissed Tom Clark lbw for 32.

Then it was the turn of Harris to get in on the act, getting the wicket of James Coles (six) with his first ball and then adding that of Danial Ibrahim (five) to leave Sussex struggling on 95 for five.

Hudson-Prentice and Oli Carter were patient in their efforts to rebuild the innings before wicketkeeper Carter fell caught behind off the bowling of McIlroy for 35. Nathan McAndrew (eight) was then caught and bowled by fellow Australian Swepson.

Off-spinner Jack Carson provided valuable support in a partnership of 61 with Hudson-Prentice which edged their team ever closer to Glamorgan’s first-innings total of 242, Carson given a life when dropped by Billy Root off Zain-ul-Hassan.

Watchful innings

However, the end came suddenly as Glamorgan wrapped the innings up with three wickets in four balls.

First Hudson-Prentice’s watchful innings was undone when he skied a short ball from Harris, then Carson (21) fell lbw and Aristides Karvelas (nought) caught behind by Chris Cooke, both to Swepson who will be on a hat-trick ball when he next bowls.

Ul-Hassan and Salter found getting runs equally difficult in the early stages of Glamorgan’s second innings, before scoring a little more freely in the last few overs of the day.

They will look to build a match-winning lead, while Sussex will take confidence from the way the home team were able to keep taking wickets as the Kookaburra ball got older.