Oli Carter and Henry Shipley dig in to earn Sussex a draw at Glamorgan

Sussex’s last-wicket pairing of Oli Carter and Henry Shipley survived over 20 overs to frustrate Glamorgan and eke out a draw in their County Championship clash.

The visitors finished on 273 for nine, 85 runs behind, with Carter on 55 not out after being dropped from two difficult chances, and number 11 Shipley unbeaten on eight.

Sussex’s rearguard action kept them second in the table, with 15 overs lost to rain in the morning.

Australian leg spinner Mitch Swepson led the way for the Welsh county with four wickets while Jamie McIlroy and James Harris took two each, but it was the final wicket that was to prove elusive.

Wicketkeeper Carter survived 149 deliveries and Shipley 56, after Nathan McAndrew’s earlier rapid 42 showed brief promise of Sussex chasing down the target, before the wickets started tumbling at regular intervals.

Sussex nightwatchman Aristides Karvelas had said his side would go for victory, but he went early and the game slowed down with Tom Clark and Tom Alsop struggling to score runs from Swepson in particular.

Key wicket

Alsop was clearly a key wicket for the home side to target as the visitors reached lunch with just two wickets down, but after the break Harris pinned the skipper lbw from round the wicket.

He was replaced at the crease by all-rounder McAndrew in a clear declaration of intent that Sussex were prepared to try and win the game.

Clark survived a big lbw shout from Swepson, but then next ball the same sort of delivery was that little bit closer and he had to depart.

The aggression levels ramped up, with McAndrew prepared to take on the bowling and more than happy to take the aerial route to the boundary whenever possible.

He hit Swepson out of the attack and saw the pace of McIlroy replace him, but that hurried the Australian into a skied mis-hit off a shorter ball which was comfortably caught at mid on by Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson.

That brought the end of an innings which had seen 42 runs off 40 deliveries – the sort of rate which would have made things much more interesting if he had carried on.

Sussex continued to take a positive approach, with James Coles leading the way until he was impressively caught behind for 35 by wicketkeeper Chris Cooke standing up to seamer McIlroy.

Inexperience

One concern for Sussex fans was the relative inexperience of their middle order and teenager Danial Ibrahim was next to go, sweeping a leg-side delivery from Swepson but top-edging to Zain-ul-Hassan at backward square leg.

However, the visitors maintained a positive approach, reaching tea with seven wickets down and still needing 154 to win.

Their eighth wicket fell after tea, Harris setting three men back on the hook and then yorking Fynn Hudson-Prentice with the middle stump coming out of the ground.

Carter was dropped on 37 by Billy Root at square leg off McIlroy, but Root atoned by making no mistake with Jack Carson off the bowling of Timm van der Gugten to leave Glamorgan needing one more wicket for victory with more than 20 overs remaining.

They had one difficult chance, Carter slashing Van der Gugten high to the right of Zain-ul-Hassan at first slip. Despite regular appeals in the closing overs, that proved to be it for home hopes.