Championship Round-up: Sussex off to flying start

Championship Round-up: Sussex off to flying start

Hampshire slip to defeat, whilst at Grace Road, Leicestershire and Glamorgan reach stalemate.

RESULT: Sussex 444 (Brown 144*) and 164 (Tomlinson 4-37) beat Hampshire 231 and 285 (Carberry 79) by 92 runs, at the Ageas Bowl.

Hampshire’s first game back in Division One ended in defeat as they went down by 92 runs to Sussex at the Ageas Bowl.

With the away side favourites to gain victory going into the final day, Hampshire’s bid for an unlikely target of 378 subsided in meek fashion, as Sussex wrapped up the win before lunch.

Having taken three late wickets on day three to put themselves in the ascendancy, there was early joy for Sussex as Will Smith was dismissed for 23 by 22-year-old Matthew Hobden. Things went from bad to worse two overs later, as Hobden clean-bowled Adam Wheater for 12.

A mini-revival between Sean Ervine (42) and Gareth Berg (14) followed, before they both fell in quick succession to leave Hampshire eight down, and staring defeat squarely in the face.

Soon afterwards, the teams were shaking hands, as Sussex sent out a message to the rest of the division. The Hove side certainly displayed the strength in depth of their bowling attack, with six different players amongst the wickets.

Man of the Match: Ben Brown

 

Glamorgan 513 (Bragg 120, Rudolph 111) and 227/7d drew with Leicestershire 435 (Eckersley 147) and 141/3, at Grace Road.

The two sides that finished last and second-last in the County Championship in 2014 began the new season with a draw at Grace Road.

After a sedate first half-hour of progress for Glamorgan, Ollie Freckingham’s first delivery of the innings caused Colin Ingram into nicking one to the wicketkeeper. From then on, it was all about whether Glamorgan could get far enough ahead to put Leicestershire under pressure, whilst also enticing them into a run-chase.

On the day that Glamorgan batsman Mark Wallace reached 10,000 first-class runs, Chris Cooke scored 81 and Craig Meschede hit a quick-fire 33 not out before Jacques Rudolph declared on 227/7.

That left Leicestershire a target of 306 in a minimum of 50 overs. Any hopes of victory soon turned into designs on batting out the draw, as the home side got off to the worst possible start, Graham Wagg and Meschede reducing them to 1/2 inside two overs with the help of two catches from Dean Cosker at slip.

However, the efforts of Mark Cosgrove (59*) and Neil Pinner (42*), the former playing against the side who he served with distinction for many years, sufficiently frustrated Glamorgan, before the two sides finally shook hands on a draw just after half past five.

Man of the Match: Ned Eckersley

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