Sam Northeast century puts Glamorgan on top against Sussex

Sam Northeast’s first century of the season put Glamorgan in a commanding position in their LV= Insurance County Championship Division Two match against Sussex, setting the visitors a victory target of 359.

Glamorgan captain Kiran Carlson changed the tempo of the innings with his half century at faster than a run-a-ball, before leaving it to Northeast to finish the job with 104 and set things up nicely for the final day’s play at Cardiff.

The victory target looks a tall order in 113 overs on a wicket that remains hard to score on – and Sussex finished on 27 for one, losing Tom Haines.

Nathan McAndrew was the pick of the Sussex bowlers, getting his second four-wicket haul of the match, while off-spinner Jack Carson toiled through 28 overs for a return of one for 92 as the rest of the wickets were shared.

Glamorgan batted themselves into a strong position with Carlson, who injected some pace into the batting by getting 59 off 50 balls, and opener Zain-ul-Hassan.

Ul-Hassan added a mere 23 runs through the morning session and progressed to 47 at lunch. Although it was slow, it was also important with the Sussex bowlers finding a bit of hitherto unseen bounce in the Sophia Gardens wicket.

He lost opening partner Andrew Salter early, while number three Thomas Bevan departed for 15, Aristides Karvelas and McAndrew getting the wickets.

Watchful

Northeast is usually fluent when getting his runs, but he too was watchful while progressing steadily through to the lunch interval.

Ul-Hassan departed first ball after the interval to a shot of unusually aggressive intent against Sussex off-spinner Carson, and at that point the game changed with Carlson walking to the wicket.

He immediately unveiled an array of shots, happy to go over the top and also employ the reverse sweep, clearly intent on ensuring Sussex would bat before the day was out.

A swipe across the line to occasional medium pacer Haines saw him depart leg before wicket, while a series of Glamorgan batsmen came and went while trying to get Northeast up to his hundred.

Having reached the milestone with some big hits, Northeast was the last man out for 104, run out trying to keep the strike with the declaration imminent.

Sussex’s bowlers rotated their efforts and retained reasonable control, apart from when Carlson was batting, with Australian McAndrew the pick of the attack. They spurned the new ball and bowled more than 100 overs with the old one.

Visiting openers Tom Clark and Haines would have been delighted to see out the final overs to keep 10 wickets intact for the final day but Haines did not look comfortable against Mitch Swepson even before being caught at slip off the Australian leg-spinner.